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THE STATHK OF LlHEinV, .MOW VOIiR HAKliOH. 



STORIES OF* THE STATES 

THE MAKING 

OF 

THE EMPIRE STATE 

BY 

JACQUES WARDLAW REDWAY, F. R. G. S. 

AUTHOR OF "A SERIES OF GEOGRAPHIES," "THE NEW BASIS OF 

GEOGRAPHY," " AN ELEMENTARY PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY," 

"A COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY," ETC. 

ILLUSTRATED 




SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY 

NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Comes f?Rr»>ived 

JUL 7 1904 

Oooyrleht Entry 
CLASS ^ XXc. No. 



Copyright, 1904, by 
JACQUES \V. REDWAY aNtu JOHN KARST 



PREFACE 

The chapters of this book consist, in the main, of 
the narration of epochal events in the growth of New 
York State. They do not constitute a connected 
history; indeed, it is doubtful if such a history has 
an}^ place whatever in juvenile literature. The things 
told, however, are events with which both young and 
old are expected to be familiar. In the preparation 
of the book I am indebted for information to the 
late Dr. Isaac Stout, of the Department of Public 
Instruction, and to Principal B. E. Hicks, of Painted 
Post. To my wife, Lilian Burnham Pedway, I owe 
much for faithful and painstaking help. 

J. W. K. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 
CHAPTER 

I.— A Survey of New York . • .13 

XL— The Discoverers of New York Bay 19 

III._Henry Hudson Comes Foravard . 23 

IY._HuDSON Explores New York Bay . 28 

v.— The West India Company and the 

Patroons '^1 

YI._Beginnings of New Netherland . 37 

YII._Half-a-Dozen Dutch Governors . 42 

VIII.— Dominie Bogardus and Church Rule 48 

XX.— The Fall of New Netherland . .53 

X.— Why Dutch Rule Failed in New 

Netherland ^'^ 

XL— The Beginning of English Rule . 03 

XIL-The First Schools in New York . 07 

XIIL— A King, a Count, and a Pirate . 71 

XIV.— Half a Century of English Rule 77 

XV.— What William Penn Lost and Sir 

William Johnson Gained . . 83 

XVI.— The Iroquois People . . . -89 

XVII.— The Indians and the Iroquois Con- 
or 

FEDERACY 



. CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XVIII. —The French and Indian War — The 

Beginning of the Struggle . . 102 
XIX.— The French and Indian War — How 

THE English AVon .... 107 
XX. — The French and Indian War — What 

New York Gained in the Struggle 113 
XXI. — The Massacre of Schenectady . 117 
XXII. — The Eevolt of the Colonies — The 

Campaign against Canada . . 122 
XXIII. — The Beginning of the War for In- 
dependence in New York . . 127 
XXIV.— The War in New York— The King's 

Plan Which Was Not Carried Out 133 
XXV.— The King's Plan— What St. Leger 

Tried to Do and Howe Didn't Do 137 
XXVI. — Cherry Valley — The Story of a 

Massacre 142 

XXVII.— How A Man Betrayed His Country 

IN Revenge 147 

XXVIII. — Life in N^ew York City After the 

Revolution 154 

XXIX.— Slavery in New York and How it 

Came to an End .... 161 
XXX. — How QuEENSTON Was Not Taken — 

A Comic Opera Campaign . . 166 
XXXI. — Lieutenant McDonough and the 

Battle on Lake Champlain . . 174 



CONTENTS i 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XXXII.— The Erie Canal .... .179 
XXXIII. — Robert Fulton and the Steamboat 184 
XXXIY. — How the Helderbergers Declared 
War— The Story of the Anti- 
Rent Riots . . . . .188 
XXXV.— Making Good Citizens— The Schools 

OF New York 192 

XXXVI.— How the Great Railway Systems 

OF THE State Were Formed . . 109 
XXXVIL— How A Yankee Cheese Box on a 

Raft Saved Xew York City . 207 
XXXVIII.— A Demagogue and His Policy— The 

New York Draft Riots . . . 213 
XXXIX. — Thirty Y^ears of Prosperity and 
Progress — Greater New York 

City 218 

XL.— The Lesson of the Spanish-Ameri- 
can War --3 

Appendix.— The Counties of New York . . 229 



I 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 

The Statue of Liberty, New 
York Harl)or . . Frontispiece 

The Palisades of the Hud- 
son I^iver 14 

Washington's Headquar- 
ters at Newburg . . . 16 

The Port of Buffah) in 1815 18 

Giovanni Da Verrazano. . 20 

The Narrows from Staten 
Island 21 

Henry Hudson .... 24 

The Landing of Hudson . 27 

An Indian in War Cos- 
tume 29 

The Van Rensselaer Man- 
sion 33 

The Van Cortlandt Manor 
House at Croton, N. Y. 35 

Looking Toward Albany 
from Van Rensselaer's 
Island 38 

A Group of Old Dutch 
Houses 41 

The Autograph of Van 
Twiller 43 

The Dutch Staadt Huys 
(State House) .... 45 



PAGE 

Peter Stuyvesant .... 47 
A View of the First Re- 
formed Church in New 

York 49 

The Old Dutch Church at 

Tarrytown 51 

New Amsterdam in 1676 . 54 
The Autograph of Stuy- 
vesant 55 

Stuyvesant Destroys the 

Demand for Surrender . 58 
An Old Farmhouse on 

Long Island .... 60 

Cottages on Boston Road . 64 
Exchange Place, Looking 

to Hanover Street . . 66 
The Autograph of Dominie 

Bogardus 68 

The Old Schoolhouse at 

Tappan 70 

King William III. ... 74 

Sir Edmund Andros ... 77 

Governor Thomas Dongan 78 

Cadwallader Colden ... 81 

Lewis Morris 82 

The Indian Hunter ... 85 

Sir William Johnson . . 86 



10 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 

King Hendrick .... 87 

An Indian Long House , . 90 

Symbols of the Clans — The 
Tribes of the Wolf, Bear 
and Turtle 91 

The Indian Village on Mun- 
liattan Island .... 93 

A Chief of the Six Nations 100 

Frenchmen Attacking a 
Spanish Fort .... 103 

Fort Niagara as it Ap- 
peared in 1814 . . . .112 

The South View of Oswego 
on Lake Ontario . . .115 

Towns on the Sites of Old 
Forts 116 

A Distant View of Old 
Schenectady . . . .119 

Frenclimen Attacking an 
Indian Fort 121 

Colonists Burning the 
Stamp Seller in Effigy . 123 

The Capture of Fort Ticon- 
deroga 125 

Fraunces's Tavern, New 
York City 130 

The Washington Arch, New 
York City 132 

General Burgoyne . . . 135 

Joseph Brant 138 

Peter Gansevoort .... 141 

Tlie Autograpli of Peter 
Gansevoort 141 

Lading Battoes on the Mo- 
hawk River . . . • . 144 



TAGE 

Colonel Marinus Willett . 145 
The Residence of Colonel 

Marinus Willett . . .146 
The Capture of Major Andre 150 
The Monument to Andr6 

at Tarry town . . . .153 
Old Canal Street and Broad- 
way 155 

Contoit's New York Tea 

Garden, 1828 .... 156 
A Fire Engine Used in 

1732 163 

A Fire Engine Used in 

1842 163 

The Old Jail in New York 

City 165 

The Heights of Queenston 167 
Stephen Van Rensselaer . 169 
The Autograph of Stephen 

Van Rensselaer . . . 169 

John E. Wool 171 

Perry Transferring His Flag 

at the Battle of Lake Erie 175 
McDonough's Victory on 

Lake Champlain . . .177 
The Canal in Old Broad 

Street, New York City . 180 
The Western End of the 

Erie Canal 182 

Fireworks Celebrating the 

Opening of the Erie 

Canal 183 

The Clermont on Her Trial 

Trip 186 

Robert R. Livinijston . .187 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



11 



The Autograph of Robert 
R. Livingston . . . .187 

Specimens of Early Copper 
Currency in New York 
State 190 

Alexander Hamilton . .193 

Governor De Witt Clinton 195 

An Old-style Railway 
Train 200 

Horseslioe Bend, Niagara 
Falls 204 

A Curve in the Elevated 
Railroad, New York City 205 

Rapid Transit Subway, 
City Hall Station, New 
York ........ 20G 



PAOK 

John Ericsson 210 

The Battle Between the 
Virginia and the Moni- 
tor 212 

The Negro Orphan Asy- 
lum 21G 

The Old Croton Aqueduct 
at Harlem River . . . 220 

"Sky Scrapers" of New 
York City 221 

A View in Central Park, 
New York City . . . 222 

Shipping in New York Har- 
bor 224 

The Capitol of the Empire 
State at Albanv . . . 220 



MAPS 



PAGE 

The MaioUo Map, 1527 12 

A Map of the Five Nations 98 

The English Colonial Territory in 1750 105 

Early Trading Posts in New York State 109 

Towns on the Sites of Old Forts 116 

The Campaigns about New York and New Jersey .... 128 

The Counties of New York State 230 

Grer.ter New York City and Vicinity 242 




? o 



1^ ™ o 



THE MAKING OF 

THE EMPIRE STATE 

I. A SURVEY OF NEW YORK STATE 

No other state in the Union has a surface more pic- 
turesque than that of New York, and certainly no 
state is more interesting. North or south, east or 
west, the landscape is an ever-changing picture. IJln 
the north are the rugged peaks of the Adirondack 
Mountains, some of them so lofty that the little 
Alpine flowers escaped destruction Avhen all the rest 
of the state was buried under the ice that covered it 
during the long glacial winter.] 

[Farther south, lying on the west side of the Hudson, 
are the Catskills where, so the legends tell us, Henry 
Hudson's sailors even nowadays bowl at tenpins. And 
whenever a summer's thunder shower hovers over 
the mountain tops, there are people who shake their 
heads and aver that they hear the rolling of the balls 
and the crash of the tenpins. Then, too, there are 
the Helderberg and the Shawangunk Mountains, with 



14 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 



their wonderful caves and more wonderful Dutch 
legends! All these belong to the great Appalachian 
family of mountain ranges that were ploughed through 
and through, when the ice-field covered the country 
ahnost beyond the Ohio Kiver. 

That same long winter and its moving ice-sheets 




not only smoothed off the rugged surface of the state, 
but it likewise scoured out a great many long hollows 
and left them in such shape that they are filled with 
clear, fresh water to this day. Look at the lakes of 
the northern and the central part of the state; you 
can tell by them in just what directions the ice-sheets 
flowed. Moreover, the ice dragged along at its bottom 



A SURVEY OF NEW YORK STATE 15 

a great deal of rock, which was ground so fiue that 
the water spread it over all the surface, here and 
there leaving great heaps of rounded bowlders strewn 
in long ridges. 

But the best thing of all that happened in that ice 
age was the making of the great valleys. Perhaps 
the valleys were already there, but certain it is 
that they were scored deeper by the rocks carried at 
the bottom of the moving ice-streams, and then filled 
with the rock waste afterwards brought there by the 
rivers. Not only were the valleys filled with the fine 
rock waste that became rich soil^ but they were so 
nicely leveled that they became easy routes for travel- 
ing from one part of the state to another. 

One of these valleys reaches from New York Bay to 
the St. Lawrence Kiver. The Hudson flows in the 
southern part of it and Lake Champlain nearly fills 
the northern part. It is almost a level pathway from 
New York City to Montreal and Quebec. Another, 
the famous Mohawk, stretches westward from the 
Hudson to the fertile prairie lands in the western part 
of the state. 

Of all the rivers the Hudson is the most important. 
The lower part is an arm of the sea up which the tides 
flow as far as Albany. The lower part widens into 
a broad lake which the Dutch Patroons called Tappan 
Sea; and from this point to the mouth of New York 



16 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 



Bay probably a greater number of vessels ply than 
can be found on any other river in the world. 
^On the east side of Tappan Sea, near Tarrytown, is 
Sleepy Hollow, where that jolly Dutchman, Brom 
Bones, used to play his pranks on the poor Connecticut 
schoolmaster, Ichabod Crane. Near by, just across 
the Tappan, Major Andre paid with his life the penalty 




WASHINGTON S HEADQUARTERS AT NEWBURG 



of Arnold's treason. A little farther up stream, hard 
by West Point, the rebels, as Admiral Howe called 
them, stretched a huge iron chain across the river, 
stopping the British ships long enough to get a few 
volleys from the battery at the Point. 

Just above West Point is Kewburg, where Gen- 
eral Washington had his headquarters; and the build- 
ing that he occupied is still almost as he left it. 
At Catskill, a sleepy little village at the foot of the 



A SURVEY OF NEW YORK STATE 17 

mountains, Rip Yan Winkle is said to have meekly 
endured the tongue-lashing of his shrewish wife until, 
out of sheer desperation, he climbed the highest crag 
and took a twenty -years' nap. At the foot of Kings- 
ton there flows the Esopus, whose waters were once 
thought to be the only liquid fit to make the far-famed 
'Sopus ale, many a butt of which found its way 
across the sea and into the cellars of the old Dutch 
burghers. 

Beyond Kingston the river loses its bold scenery and 
is bordered by dairy farms. At Albany, where once 
Fort Orange stood, it begins to grow narrower, and 
finally its waters are divided among the streams and 
tarns of the Adirondacks, where also are the head- 
waters of the Mohawk, the Black, and a hundred 
other rivers. 

Not far west of Albany, where the two great high- 
ways of the continent meet, is a broad plateau that is 
highest in Otsego county, from which flow the streams 
that form the Susquehanna and the Delaware. The 
wise old Iroquois chiefs knew well what a wonderful 
situation it had, for the valleys that led from it were 
just as important pathways to them as they are to the 
white man to-day; and long before the snort of the 
iron horse was ever heard, these red men were passing 
back and forth through the valleys, holding them 
against the intrusions of other tribes. 



18 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 



From the great Council House near where the city 
of Syracuse now stands, the tribes could go northward 
down Oswego Eiver to Lake Ontario; eastvvard to the 
Hudson E-iver; southward to Chesapeake Bay, and 
southwestward to the Ohio River. It would be hard 
to find a situation better adapted to make a great 
people, and only a few generations after these same 




From an old })riut. 



THE PORT OF BUFFALO IN 1815. 



Iroquois came to the region, they were the most 
powerful Indian nation on the continent. 

The western part of the state is so level that it may 
be called a part of the prairie region. The name of its 
chief city is a hint that at one time the bison, the animal 
we call the buffalo, used to thrive on the rich prairie 
grass that once grew there. And the white man still 
finds it a wonderfully rich country, producing dairy 



THE DISCOVERERS OF NEW YORK BAY 19 

cattle instead of bisons and Avheat in the place of 
prairie grass. 

We almost always call New York the Empire State, 
because it is first in wealth, in commerce, and in the 
value of its products. "When we study its history we 
shall be pretty apt to conclude that its geography has 
not a little to do with its high place in the rank of 
states. We shall see that the splendid harbor at the 
mouth of the Hudson Eiver has made it the best place 
on the continent for commerce; that the rich soil may 
be made to produce food stuffs for twice as many mill- 
ion people as the state now contains, and that the 
broad valleys from Buffalo to the Hudson, and then 
down the Hudson, are the great highways over which 
all this trade can pass with the least of difficulty. 



II. THE DISCOVERERS OF NEW YORK BAY 

If one were to ask the first school boy he might 
meet, '* Who discovered Kew York Bay ? " the answer 
would most likely be —Henry Hudson. In a way this is 
right, because the history of what is now called New 
York begins with Hudson's visit. But Hudson was 
not the first white man to sail upon the waters of New 
York Bay, nor to enter the river that bears Hudson's 
name. Indeed, no one can say positively who was the 



20 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIKE STATE 



very first white man to explore the bay, but one of the 
very first was an Italian sailor named Yerrazano. 

Yerrazano, it seems, was in the employ of some 
French mernhants, for late in 1523 he left Dieppe, a 
seaport on the north coast of France, vriih four vessels. 
The ships were disabled by a heavy storm and put back 

into port. Yerrazano 
started again with two 
vessels and got as far as 
Madeira, w^here he left 
one of them. With his 
remaining ship he sailed 
from Madeira sometime 
in the middle of January 
following, and reached 
the coast of Korth Caro- 
lina, which he spoke of 
as "a new land, never 
before seen by men." Keeping northeasterly along 
the coast, he entered about every bay or estuary he 
saw, and among them was New York Bay. That he 
cruised about the latter there is but very little doubt, 
for in his description one can fairly see Sandy Hook, 
the Narrows, Staten Island and East River; indeed, 
there is hardly a chance for mistake on this score. 

After a few days, however, he turned about and, 
coasting the south shore of Long Island, visited Kar- 




GIOVANNl DA YERRAZANO. 



THE DISCOVERERS OF :NEW YORK BAY 



21 



ragansett and Cape Cod bays, then Penobscot Bay, 
finally sailing back to Narragansett Bay, which he called 
his '' refuge." I3y this time summer was at hand, and 
his food supplies were low; so he set sail for Dieppe, 
reaching port safely in July, 152i, and happily ending 
an eio^ht months' cruise. 




Invni an u, 



THE NARROWS FROM STATEN ISLAND. 



According to a letter that he wrote to the King of 
France, Yerrazano seems merely to have sailed into 
each of the various bays and then sailed out again; he 
made but very few landings, and he did not go inland at 
any time more than a few miles. Of course there must 
have been a reason for this: let us see why. 



22 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

When the American continent was discovered, there 
was no suspicion that it was a great body of land 
hitherto unknown. At that time the energy of all 
Europe was bent towards finding an all-water trade 
route to India, because the Turks had blocked tight all 
the routes to the East. At first it was supposed that 
the east coast of the American continent was the coast 
of India, but less than twenty years sufficed to show 
that India must be still a long way to the west. 

There was a strong belief, however, that the new 
land was a very narrow strip. A few years before 
Yerrazano sailed (1511), Balboa had crossed it at what 
proved to be the narrowest part, the Isthmus of Pan- 
ama; and two or three years before Magellan be- 
gan his cruise, he had sailed through the strait now 
bearing his name, and had crossed the Pacific, one of 
his ships making a journey around the Avorld. Now, 
inasmuch as the distance through the strait is but little 
more than 150 miles, and that across the isthmns less 
than one-fourth as much, there was good reason for 
believing the continent to be very narrow. That 
Yerrazano still had this notion after he had returned 
is shown by the map which his brother made. ]S"orth 
America is represented in shape abnost like an hour 
glass; in the latitude of Eichmond, Yirginia, it is 
not more than ten miles wide! 

Yerrazano came honestly by this belief, for his 



HENRY HUDSON COMES FORWARD 23 

second landing-place was either at the southern, part 
of the peninsula now called Eastern Shores, or else on 
the reef that encloses Pamlico Sound. In either case a 
very short journey would have brought him to Ches- 
apeake Bay or else to the Sound. And inasmuch as he 
could not see across either body of water, he was justi- 
fied in believing what Balboa had said — namely, that 
the ''new land" was very narrow, and that a water 
passage through it might be found. 

A year or two later Yerrazano again sailed from 
France in search of this passage way, but his voyage 
came to a sad end. At that time France was on bad 
terms with her neighbor, Spain, with regard to this 
new land, because each country wanted the entire coast. 
So Avhen Yerrazano's vessel was sighted by a Spanish 
squadron, the latter made very short work of it. They 
captured the vessel and put Yerrazano in chains. He 
was at once taken to Cadiz, where he was hanged as a 
pirate. Though only thirty years old, he had proved 
himself one of the best sailors that had ever lived. 



III. HENRY HUDSON COMES FORWARD 

During the eighty years following Yerrazano's 
death a great many vessels entered New York Bay. 
One or two of them were Spanish, but most of them 



24 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 



were French. Of the white people who came in con- 
tact with the Indians, the French were about the only 
ones to get along with them peaceably. The French 
were reasonably just to the Indians in the business of 
buying and selling goods. French traders supplied them 

with iron for mak- 
ing arrow heads, 




.material that 



a 
was 
vastly better for the 
purpose than the 
flint formerly used; 
still better, from the 
French trader the 
Indians could pur- 
chase the very best 
weapon of all — a 
gun. The French and 
the Indians, there- 
fore, were usually on 
friendly terms, and it is not surprising that French 
traders Avent very frequently up the Hudson as far as 
the mouth of the Mohawk. They even built a stock- 
ade and trading-post on one of the islands now 
included in the City of Albany. They made no perma- 
nent settlements, however, nor did they try to make 
good the title to the land which Yerrazano had claimed 
for them. As a result, they were destined to lose it. 



HENRY HUDSON. 



HENRY HUDSON COMES FORWARD 25 

Among the enterprising tradesmen in England there 
was a family that for four generations had been held in 
great public esteem. Henry Hudson had been an Al- 
derman, and more than once had been an adviser of 
Queen Elizabeth. Hudson's nephew was a famous 
sailor and had been on two or three voyages of ex- 
ploration in. the arctic regions of North America. 
Moreover, several of his sons had been apprenticed to 
a trading company that had sent out many vessels in 
search of a northern passage to India shorter than 
the one around Africa. 

Henry Hudson, a grandson of the Alderman, was 
employed by this same company. In 1007 he cruised 
about between Greenland and Spitzbergen, trying to 
find a short route across to India by way of the North 
Pole, which so many others were seeking, and the year 
following he made another voyage by way of Nova 
Zembla. He did not find the northeast passage, but 
he succeeded in going farther north than any one be- 
fore him had done. He therefore had become famous 
as a sailor and explorer. 

In the meantime the Dutch East India Company had 
been learning about Hudson and his voyages, and de- 
cided that he was too valuable a man to be kept in the 
employ of their English rivals in trade. Indeed, Hud- 
son's fame had become so great that Henry IV., of 
France, offered to put him at the head of a great trad- 



26 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

ino" company which the French merchants at that time 
were organizing. Anyway, after a little hesitation, 
Hudson signed a contract that put him in the service 
of the Dutch, and he was forthwith ordered to resume 
his former duty, namely, to search for a passage to 
India. So, in April, 1609, he sailed out of the Zuyder 
Zee, or '' South Sea," as it would be called in English, 
in the Half Moon, a little vessel not much larger than 
an ordinary pleasure yacht. His crew numbered not 
more than eighteen men all told. 

After reaching the north coast of Russia, Hudson 
cruised about for some time, trying to get beyond 
Nova Zembla. There was much ice, however, and sail 
whichever way he might, there was no passage for the 
Half Moon; the Avhole region was sa beset with pack 
and floe that the sailors began to get ugly and rebel- 
lious; the vessel therefore turned back — apparently to 
return to port, but really to give Hudson a chance to 
carry out a much bolder plan. 

Hudson did not sail homeward. He had been or- 
dered to return to Amsterdam if he could not find 
the passage through to India by way of the north- 
east, but he did what many another great man has done 
under the circumstances; he put his instruct'ions into 
his pocket and acted upon his best nidgment. Turn- 
ing the H( (If Moon about, he concluded that he would 
make a search for a norihwest passage. But before he 



HENRY HUDSON COMES FORWARD 



27 



had gone very far, he got to thinking about Yerrazano 
Sea and the narrow waist of land the Italian sailor had 
discovered eighty odd years before. Moreover, Hud- 
son had in his possession a letter from John Smith, the 
famous explorer and the hero of the Pocahontas story. 




Ii'rom ihe pairiiing by Weii 



THE LAKDING OF HUDSON. 



In this letter he was told that although there was no 
passage across to the Pacific at the head of Chesapeake 
Bay, where Yerrazano had looked for it, there might 
be one leading from a bay farther north. 

To think was to act, and Hudson again changed the- 
course of the Half Moon, determined to look for a 
southwest passage. Seven weeks later he stopped at 



28 THt: MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

Penobscot Bay to put in a new mast and repair his 
sails; a little while afterward he was at Cape Cod, 
and then he got into Delaware Bay. He soon found 
that no strait led from that bay into Yerrazano Sea, 
and so, turning about, he crept along the Jersey coast 
until he found another opening — the largest he had 
yet seen. The opening was New York Bay, and on 
the third of September he dropped anchor somewhere 
near Staten Island, the present Borough of Eichmond. 



IV. HUDSON EXPLORES NEW YORK BAY 

Hudson spent a month exploring New York Bay 
and the river flowing into it. Doubtless there were 
many things that at first led him to believe he could 
sail through the bay into the Pacific Ocean; but be- 
fore he had sailed up the river as far as the present site 
of Albany, he must have realized that no such passage 
between the two oceans could exist. Beyond West 
Point, and even at the head of Tappan Sea, the bay 
begins to take the form of a river, and a man as 
shrewd as Hudson could not well be deceived. 

The Indians whom the sailors saw at first were 
frightened, but very quickly their fright gave way 
to curiosity. While the Half Moon was at anchor 
near Manna-hatta — now called Manhattan Island — 



HUDSON EXPLORES KEW YORK BAY 



'29 



many of them Avent aboard the vessel. The men, 
Hudson tells us, were well dressed. They had head- 
dresses and mantles of feathers. The women wore 
ornaments of copper around their necks and wrists; 
some of them had clothing made of hemp cloth. Both 
men and women wore clothes made 
of deer skin. The Indians seemed to 
think that their white visitors were 
fond of tobacco, for they brought 
much of it to the ship to trade for 
kniv^es, beads and other trinkets. 
Most likely they had learned this 
sort of trading from the French 
traders years before. Certain it is 
that they were acquainted with fire- 
arms, for on one occasion several 
Indians made a very shrewd plan 
to steal some muskets from the ship. 
While the Half Moon was an- 
chored near the Catskills, Hudson 
and his crew visited the chief of a friendly tribe and 
supped with him. The food was served in red, wooden 
bowls and included dishes both of corn and beans; 
for meat some pigeons were shot and a dog was killed. 
Mats were spread upon the ground on which to sit. 
In a laro-e round-shaded house made of oak bark there 
were stores of maize, or Indian corn, and beans — enough 




AN INDIAN IN WAR 
COSTUME. 



30 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

to load three shi})s; moreover, maize and beans, to- 
gether Avitli squashes, were growing in cultivated fields. 

After Hudson found that E'ew York Bay and the 
Hudson River estuary were not a strait leading into 
the Pacific Ocean, he turned about. In October he 
sailed out past Sandy Hook, headed for Europe; a 
month later he called at a port in England to leave 
some English sailors, and then sent word to Amster- 
dam, whither he intended to report and also to fit out 
another expedition. 

By this time, however, King James of England had 
made up his mind that so good a sailor as Hudson 
would better be in the employ of England than Hol- 
land, and so the king sent w^ord forbidding him to 
leave England, and ordering him to report again to his 
old employers, the Muscovy Company. 

With the coming of spring Hudson was in command 
of another vessel — this time one that flew the English 
flag — and was on his way agaiu in search of a route 
to India by way of the norihtvest. Entering Davis 
Strait, he discovered the great sea now called after 
him — Hudson Bay. His vessel was caught in the 
ice in the southern part, which is now called James 
Bay, and he remained there during the winter of 
1010. When the ice pack had parted and there 
was open sailing, it was late in June. Hudson 
wished to keep on and continue the search, but his 



THE WEST INDIA COMPANY 31 

crew, suffering from the hardships of an artic winter, 
had become rebellious; and so they set him adrift with 
his son and several sick men in an open boat. The ves- 
sel and its mutinous crew set sail for England; but on 
their way they made a landing where several, includ- 
ing the chief mutineers, were slain by savages. The 
vessel reached England safely and the rest of the crew 
were very rightly thrown into prison. A relief ves- 
sel was immediately sent out to rescue Hudson and his 
son, but no more was ever seen or heard of them. The 
news that the vessel brought back, however, was not 
forgotten. It set all England a-thinking, and only a 
few years elapsed before these thoughts took shape. 



V. THE WEST INDIA COMPANY AND THE 
PATROONS 

In time the Dutch began the settlement of the ter- 
ritory which Henry Hudson had opened for them, and 
in order to do this to the best advantage the affair 
was put in the hands of an association of business men. 
This association was called the West India Company. 

The West India Company desired to get as many 
settlers as possible into the territory it controlled, be- 
cause each family added to the income of the company. 
As a matter of fact man}^ people did go there, but, at 



82 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

the same time, very few seemed willing to stay. In- 
deed, it Vv'as much like going to California during the 
gold-mining excitement of 1849; every one who under- 
took the journey went with the intent to get rich as 
quickly as possible and to return to the ' ' States ' ' to 
enjoy his fortune. So, after fifteen years from the 
time that Manhattan Island was made a settlement, less 
than three hundred people were living there. More- 
over, neither a church nor a school had been organized. 

The Company must depend for its profits, not on the 
people who became adventurers, but on those who went 
there to live. So in 1629 a very liberal offer was made. 
Any member who within four years might induce 
fifty people, not including children, to form a com- 
munity and settle in the Company's territory, .should 
receive a grant or gift of land. The land might be 
chosen along the Hudson or any other navigable river 
in the prescribed territory. The estate was to have 
a frontage on the Hudson of not more than sixteen 
miles on one side, or eight miles on both sides, as the 
owner might choose ; it could extend as far back from 
the river as circumstances might permit. 

The one to whom such a grant was made, was styled 
a Patroon, and the estate itself was called a manor. 
The Patroon was pretty nearly an absolute monarch 
on his manor. He could require the colonists to buy 
all their supplies of him, and could also forbid the sale 



THE WEST INDIA COMPANY 



33 



of crops or cattle to any one but himself. The Patroon 
at first furnished his tenants with seed, farming uten- 
sils, stock, houses, and barns, and in return took for 
his own rent a certain part of the crop and increase of 
the stock. In addition, a certain fixed rent, also to be 
paid in produce, was exacted. For the first ten years 




THE VAN RENSSELAER MANSION. 



a tenant paid no taxes to the Company, but during this 
time he was not permitted to move from one manor to 
another. The company likewise agreed to furnish the 
tenants with Xegro slaves when necessary, but these 
were to be owned not by the tenant but by the Com- 
pany, and the slaves could be withdrawn at the Com- 
pany's will. The tenant might be a tradesman or a 
skilled workman with the permission of the Patroon, 



84 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

but to make cloth of any kind, or to deal in furs was 
forbidden under severe punishment. Cloth manu- 
facture was to be kept in Holland; fur-trading in New 
Netherland was an exclusive right of the Compan}^ 

The first manor was established on Delaware River, 
and included Cape May. It was not successful. The 
next was attempted by one De Pauw. and included the 
present sites of Jersey City, Iloboken and all Staten 
Island; it was named Pavonia, and most likely the 
name of the town Baijonne has grown from it. Per- 
haps the most prosperous manor of the time was that 
founded by Kilian Yan Pensselaer, a jeweler and dia- 
mond cutter of Amsterdam. When Yan Pensselaer 
became a Patroon lie selected the land that includes 
the sites of Albany, Troy and Hudson; furthermore, he 
paid the Indians for it, as well. Instead of taking any- 
one who might want a free passage, Yan Pensselaer 
was careful to select only farmers of thrifty habits and 
good character. As a result, Rensselaer wyck, as the 
colony was called, came to have a great value. There 
were a number of other manors that were equally suc- 
cessful, among them the well known names of Yan 
Cortlandt, Livingston and Schuyler. Most of these 
manors were on the Hudson; a few bordered Long 
Island Sound or the upper Delaware. 

On the whole tlie tenants were fairly well treated 
both by the Patroons and the Company. Each Pa- 



THE WEST INDIA COMPANY 



35 



troon was a magistrate very much after the manner of 
the English "Squire." He held court, punished of- 
fenses against the peace of the community, settled dis- 
putes, and expelled or imprisoned persons of bad char- 
acter. Any one feeling aggrieved at his decision might 
appeal to the Council of the Company — but the Patroon 




THE V.1.N COUTLAXDT MANOR HOUSE AT CROTON, NEW YORK. 

took such measures that the appeal was never made! 
Twice a year the tenants gathered at the house of the 
Patroon to pay their rent and settle scores, and always 
the business ended with a great feast in which 'Sopus 
ale and s(!hnapps had a part. On the successful man- 
ors the tenants probably lived better, earned more 
and saved more than would have been possible in the 
mother country. 



36 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

In spite of all this, the manor system certainly 
hastened the end of the Dutch rule. To organize a 
colony in Holland, carry the colonists to New Nether- 
land, buy the land from Indian owners, and supply 
the tenants with tools, shelter and provisions, required 
more capital than even a very rich fariner could com- 
mand. So but few farmers ever becaine Patroons; 
the latter almost always were traders or, as we should 
now say, ''promoters." In the second place, the 
Patroons found fur-trading not only much more to 
their liking, but far more profitable. But the business 
of fur-trading was a sole privilege of the Company, 
and it is not hard to understand that much quarreling 
resulted. The manor system was organized for the 
purpose of bringing farmers to New Netherland ; for 
the greater part it brought nothing but trouble. The 
Patroons and the Company quarreled; the people 
having practically no voice in their government, man- 
aged to do about as they pleased, provided that no one 
found out their misdeeds. Such a condition, however, 
was demoralizing, and so when the English fleet ap- 
peared before New Amsterdam the settlers were quite 
willing to exchange Dutch for English rule. They 
may have lost some of their liberties by the exchange, 
but they certainly gained a better government. 



BEGINNINGS OF NEW NETHERLAND 37 



VI. BEGINNINGS OF NEW NETHERLAND 

In 1614, or not more than five or six years after 
Henry Hudson sailed the Half Moon to the shallows 
and bars of the Hudson Eiver, an agent of the Xew 
]N"etherland Company named Christiansen went up 
the river nearly to the present site of Albany. 
Christiansen was a sea captain and also a trader; 
moreover, he was equally clever in either calling. His 
chief reason for establishing a trading-post at this 
particular place was the fact that French traders 
had had one there about seventy-five years before. 
The old French strong-house was not in very good 
condition, but Christiansen's men repaired it, put a 
ditch around it, and mounted some cannon within its 
walls. One Jacob Elkins remained as commander of 
the post. 

Christiansen did not count on the floods that come 
booming down the river every spring, however, and 
after the garrison had been half-drowned two or three 
times, the post was moved to the mouth of l^ormans 
Kill, near the place where South Pearl Street enters 
the pretty suburb of Albany, now named Kenwood. 
This place was called by the Indians, Tawasentha, 
" the abode of the dead," and it will always be noted 
for the treaty by which the Dutch agreed to give the 



88 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 



Iroquois powder and fire-arms ia exchange for furs 
and skins. 

The new location did not prove a good place for 
trade. It was also thought to be insecure in case 
of an attack, so the trading-post was moved within 
the present limits of Albany.^ The post or strong- 
house was built on a hill, well fortified, and was named 




Fiij)n (in old }ii int. 
LOOKING TOWARD ALBANY FROM VAN RENSSELAEr's ISLAND. 

Fort Orange, after the Prince of Orange, the Stadt- 
h older of Holland. 

As a trading-center Fort Orange became a place of 
much hnportance. Besides the garrison there were 
always traders, hunters and officers of the Company, 
and many of tliese liad their families with tliem. After 

* Fort Orange Hotel, destroyed by fire more than half a century 
ago, occupied the site of the old fort. 



BEGINNINGS OF NEW NETHERLAND 



39 




a few years, when the Eensselaer manor had brought 
many other families thither, the village of Eensselaer- 
wyck became one 
of the most thriv- 
ing places in 'New 
I^etherland. 

Then came the 
English conquest, 
and when E"ew 
Amsterdam became 
ISTew York, Fort Orange became Albany, receiving its 
name as a compliment to the Duke of Albany. 

Even at the close of the AVar of the Eevolution, Al- 
bany was scarcely more than a country village of two 
or three business streets. Most of the shops were on 
Pearl Street, but there were some on "Water Street. 
Many, if not most of the signs, were in Dutch, and the 



Obverse. Reverse. 

(Size of the original.) 

A DUTCH STUYVER. 




WAMPUM. 



shops themselves had assortments of furnishing-goods 
the names of Avhich are now unknown. Not a little of 
the trade was carried on in Avampum and suckhannock, 
as the Indian money was called. For three pieces of 



40 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

suckhannock or six pieces of wampum one could buy 
stuff to the amount of a stay ver, Dutch money— or 
about the value of two cents in modern coin. 

The houses Avere each built, as a rule, in the front 
of a cultivated field, on three sides constructed of 
squared logs, the front being of brick. The bricks 
were of yellow clay and were imported from Holland. 
Gutters of tin or of tile projected from the eaves just 
far enough to send a deluge of water over the side of 
the street w^hen there was rain. The unfortunate pe- 
destrian who tried to get along the streets during a 
shower had a choice of two evils: he could wade 
ankle-deep in mud if he kept the middle of the street, 
or he could have hiinself soused with the streams 
from the eave-gutters, if he chose to go on the side- 
walk. 

The people of that time, both Dutch and English, 
boasted of the greatness of their town. It was the 
largest in the Hudson valley. The City of Hudson, 
even now a quaint-looking hamlet, was a half-culti- 
vated farm. Tarry town was a sleepy village, where 
dwelt '' Brom Bones," and where for a time sojourned 
Ichabod Crane. JSTewburg was a ^' cross-roads " Dutch 
village. Poughkeepsie was a thrifty town that thrived 
on its desire to surpass Mbany. But Albany had al- 
most four thousand people and imagined itself a rival 
of Boston and Philadelphia. 



BEGINNING OF NEW NETHERLAND 



41 



Nevertheless, there were fault-finding travelers who 
used to poke fun at Albany. They called the merchants 
close-fisted skinflints, and added that the people were 
about as hospitable to strangers as were storks to 
frogs. One sarcastic traveler said that the only thing 
in Albany worth having was the price of a passage to 
]S"ew York. 

The building of the Erie Canal gave Albany great 




From Valtuline's Manuul. 

A GROUP OF OLD DUTCH HOUSES. 

commercial advantages, and the city has steadily grown 
in importance. It may still be called a " cross-roads " 
town, but the cross-roads in question are two of the most 
important highways of the continent. One, an open 
and almost level route between the Mississippi Yalley 
and the Atlantic seaboard, is the chief route of com- 
merce of the continent. The other, a low pass from the 
Hudson to the St. Lawrence rivers, along Lake Cham- 



42 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

plain, is the open door between New York City and 
Canada. Albany is at the crossing of the routes. 
Fort Orange is long since gone and the thrifty Dutch 
burghers are sleeping their long sleep, but the spirit 
of progress still hovers about the cross-roads. 



VII. HALF A DOZEN DUTCH GOVERNORS 

The charter of the West India Company gave to it 
the right to trade on the '' barbarous coasts of America 
and Africa," everywhere between Is^ewfoundland and 
the Strait of Magellan on the one side of the Atlan- 
tic, and from the Tropic of Cancer to Cape of Good 
Hope on the other side. It was necessary for a con- 
cern having such great privileges and such an enor- 
mous business to have many trading-posts. Manhattan 
Island was the first one to be established. 

It was also necessary that the trading-post should 
have a governor — Director-General, he was called — and 
of governors there were several. The first was Cor- 
nelius May (1024), and the next William Yerhulst. 
Neither counted for much, and it is not certain that 
either one ever visited New Netherland. In 1626 
Peter Minuit came, and he was every inch a gov- 
ernor. One of his first acts was to purchase Manhat- 
tan from the Indians to whom it belonged. This trans- 



HALF A DOZEN DUTCH GOVERNORS 43 

action cost him sixty guilders — a sum equal to about 
twenty-four dollars— and the payment was made in 
ribbons, beads and similar trinkets. 

jVrinuit was a very sensible man, and (piickly learned 
how to get along with the Indians. Although both 
the Manhatanis and Mohegans were hostile to the Mo- 
hawks, he had the friendship of all three tribes. He 
likewise had the esteem of Governor Bradford of the 



^^A^^r^t^y^fTCcK&Jh 




THE AUTOGRAPH OF VAN TWILLER. 

Plymouth colony. But after five years of service the 
Company thought he was too indulgent with the 
Patroons, who were secretly dealing in furs, and so 
he was recalled. 

There was a clerk in the Company's employ in 
Amsterdam, who had married a niece of Ivilian Yan 
Eensselaer, the wealthy Patroon, and Yan Rensse- 
laer was shrewd enough to have him appointed 
governor in Minuit's place. This clerk was Wouter 
Yan T wilier, and of him Father Knickerbocker says, 
'^He was exactly five feet six inches in height, 



44 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

and six feet Ave inches in circumference. His 
head was a perfect sphere, and of such stupen- 
dous dimensions, that Dame Xature, with all her 
sex's ingenuity, Avould have been puzzled to con- 
struct a neck capable of supporting it; wherefore she 
wisely declined the attempt and settled it firmly on 
the top of his backbone, just between the shoulders." 

But however '' stupendous in dimensions" he may 
have been, Yan Twiller was lacking in the material 
that stiffens backbone, and as a result he was in 
all sorts of quarrels out of which he usually came 
second best. But he was a good man, and both 
he and Xew Netherland prospered greatly; indeed, 
it was often noted that his farms were the best on 
Manhattan or in Flatbush. Finally the Company 
was compelled to recall him, and so William Kieft 
came to succeed him. 

Black and white are not more unlike than were 
Kieft and A^an Twiller. Kieft found fault with every- 
thing, upset pretty nearly everything, and quarreled 
with every one. He offended the Indians near New 
Amsterdam, by refusing to sell them firearms, yet sell- 
ing great numbers to their mortal enemies, the Iro- 
quois; he angered them still more by trying to tax 
them. This, together with the murder of a Karitan, 
led to the massacre of more than seven hundred Indians 
and thirty or forty white people, among them the 



HALF A DOZEN DUTCH GOVEilNOKS 



45 



famous Ann Hutchinson, "^^ who had been banished from 
Massachusetts. 

Kieft grew more and more waspish as lie began to 
realize that he was very cordially hated. Finally he 
quarreled with Dominie Bogardus. The Dominie, how- 
ever, was a pretty good fighter himself, and the two 
went at it, hammer and tongs, the one from the State 
House, the other from tlie meeting-house, Bogardus 





B.^I^L^ 



THE STAADT HUY.S (STATE HOUSE). 

from his pulpit used to thunder against the governor, 
and the governor's guard would try to drown the 
Dominie's voice with the noise of their drums and 
trumpets. Even the air got lurid with the lashings 
they gave each other. "When they had tired them- 
selves out — as well as everybody else — they started to 
Amsterdam to finish the quarrel before the Company's 

* Her cabin was on Prospect Hill, Pelbam, between Split Rock 
and Boston Road. Her child, eight years of age, was captured and 
for three years lived with the Indians. When rescued she was un- 
willing to leave the tribe that had adopted her. 



46 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

Council, but the ship was wrecked and both perished. 
Bogardus met death on the shores not far from his 
home. 

In one of his matchless fables ^sop tells us about 
certain frogs who clamored for a king ; and so Jupiter 
cast a Log, which was to be their king, into the 
swamp. In a very short time the frogs had so far lost 
all respect for their monarch as to pray Jupiter for a 
real, live king. Thereupon Jupiter sent them a stork, 
which forthwith began to gobble them up without so 
much as saying ''by your leave." In comparing 
Wouter Yan Twiller with William Kieft, Mr. John 
Fiske speaks of them as '' King Log and King Stork " 
— and it would not be easy to find a better comparison. 

After Yan Twiller, the grand, old w^ooden-legged 
hero, Peter Stuy vesant, became governor. Stuyvesant 
had a temper somewhat like tabasco sauce, but he w^as 
honest, fair and sensible. He let the people elect the 
Council to assist him, as did Kieft, though he was 
careful not to call upon the Council unless he was sure 
that they were of his own mind. But he was, never- 
theless, so considerate of the rights of the people that 
none but evil-doers feared him. 

Stuyvesant did not take much stock in popular gov- 
ernment and there was a very decided belief that he 
was not a man with whom one could safely trifle. 
Once he declared to a Councilman who disputed him, 



HALF A DOZEN DUTCH GOVERNORS 



47 



'^If anyone, during my administration, shall appeal, 
I will make him a foot shorter and send the pieces back 
to Holland" — and most likely he would have been as 
good as his word. In spite of his occasional explosions 
of temper, he was 
at heart kind and 
sincere. Even his 
bitter enemies ad- 
mired his sincerity 
and absolute hon- 
esty — and what bet- 
ter commendation 
could any man ask 
than to have a re- 
putation of that 
sort? 

After the English 
occupation of New 
Netherland, Stuyve- 
sant retired to his farm, or bouwerie, on East River, 
where he spent the rest of his life. Colonel Nichols, 
the English governor who succeeded him, became one 
of his best friends and the two were almost like 
brothers. Stuyvesant died at the age of eighty, and 
a vault in St. Mark's Church in New York City still 
bears the name 

PETEUS STUYYESANT. 




PETER STUYVESANT. 



48 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIKE STATE 



VIII. DOMINIE BOGARDUS AND CHURCH RULE 

The times during which the first settlements were 
made in the 'Ne\Y World were not very peaceful years 
to people who had their own ideas about religion. In 
the Old World, Catholics and Protestants behaved 
toward each other more like savages than Christians, 
and both sects were equally brutal in punishing people 
whom they considered heretics. As a result, several 
of the early settlements of the ^ew World ^vere made 
by people who had been persecuted for their religious 
beliefs. Massachusetts was the early home of the Puri- 
tans, and Maryland that of the Catholics. 

At first, New York was free from all religious trou- 
bles. The early comers to New Ketherland were 
troubled rather more about their pocketbooks than 
their religious beliefs. Indeed, Ne^Y Netherland being 
strictly a commercial venture was a trading commu- 
nity. Perhaps it might have been different had 
the Mayflower landed her colony of Pilgrims at New 
Amsterdam instead of Plymouth, as was at one time 
planned; but certain it was that for several years 
there was not even a preaclier of the Gospel in Ne^Y 
!N"etherland, much less a church. 

It was not until Wouter Yan T wilier came, that a 
minister appeared in the colony. Governor Yan 



DOMINIE BOGARDUS AND CHURCH RULE 



49 



T wilier brought with hhii the very picturesque char- 
acter, Dominie Bogardus. That the Dominie was a 
very learned and an able man no one could deny. He 
likewise had a temper — and no one cared to deny 
that. The governor himself was one of the first tar- 
gets of the peppery Bogardus, and the latter denounced 
him from the pulpit as a "child of Satan." The 
governor was a tactful man, however, and as he 
knew that the Dominie could tell some rather un- 




A VIEW OF THE FIRST REFORMED CHURCH IX NEW YORK. 

A reproduction from tiles. This was called " The Church in the Fort," now the 
Collegiate Church of New York; organized 1628, building erected 1647. 

pleasant things which the Company ought to know, 
but did not know, he decided to be forgiving. 

It happened once that a ship having among her pas- 
sengers the master of Pavonia Manor had stopped for 
repairs in East Eiv^er. Yan Twiller invited the Dom- 
inie to go over to make a call. Just what they had 
for entertainment does not appear, but it must have 
been stronger than buttermilk, for both the Dominie 
and his host got very drunk and managed to set the 



50 THE MAKING OF THE KMPIEE STATE 

house afire. From that time they agreed to tell noth- 
ing about each other. 

Dominie Megapolensis, another clergyman, was 
quite as strong a character as Bogardus, and a much 
better man, but he would not tolerate anything that 
seemed to him like heresy. So when he learned 
that a number of German Lutherans were meeting 
at private houses for Avorship, he caused several of 
them to be imprisoned. The people of Kew Amster- 
dam were angry at this, and made Governor Kief t re- 
lease the prisoners. A few years later, when Ernestus 
Goetwater was sent from Holland as pastor of the 
Lutheran Church, Megapolensis had him arrested and 
caused him to be sent back to Amsterdam. 

The Baptists who had come into New Netherland 
also had a hard time of it. They were not very many 
in number, but they used to meet for worship at a 
jirivate house in Flushing, or sometimes in Brooklyn. 
When it was learned that these meetings were taking 
place, there was trouble. The man in whose house the 
meetings were held happened to be the sheriff; he Av^as 
removed from office and fined 500 guilders, a sum 
equal to about two hundred dollars. The preacher 
was fined 1,000 guilders and driven out of the colony. 

For several years there Avas comparative peace, but 
Avhile Peter Stuyvesant Avas governor, in 1057, a 
number of the Society of Friends— Quakers, they Avere 



DOMINIE BOGARDUS AND CHURCH RULE 



51 



called — were driven out of Massachusetts and took 
refuge in New Amsterdam. Some of them were im- 
prisoned, some were banished, and a few fled to Long 
Island. 

One of the latter, Robert Hodshone by name, ap- 
pealed to the people in Hempstead. He was imme- 




THE OLD DUTCH CHURCH AT TARRYTOWN. 

diately arrested. His Bible and papers were seized 
and he was bound and dragged behind a wagon across 
Brooklyn. At l^ew x\msterdam he was thrown into a 
filthy dungeon, where he was confined until he was 



brought before the Council. The Council had 



no 



right to try him; nevertheless, he was sentenced to 
be fined GOO o;uilders or to labor for two years chained 
to a wheelbarrow. 



52 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

Hodsbone had not a single stuyver in the world, and 
so he Avas bound to a wheelbarrow and dragged to 
w^ork in the streets. He refused to load the barrow 
and for that was flogged at the whipping post until he 
fell to the ground in a faint. For several days in 
succession he was repeatedly flogged; then for two 
days he was starved; finally he was hung from the 
ceiling by his wrists and again beaten into insensi- 
bility. By this time the people had become so furious 
that the Council did not dare carry the brutal treat- 
ment further. Then the governor's sister pleaded 
Ilodshone's case very effectively and he was released, 
after which he was cared for by the best people of the 
town. 

A few weeks later a Quaker was arrested in Flushing, 
fined, and ordered to be banished. But the people 
would have none of it, and the town officers refused to 
execute the sentence. They said, ''The law of love, 
peace and liberty, extending to Jews, Turks and 
Egyptians, forms the true glory of Holland. Should 
any of these people come in love among us, we cannot 
in conscience lay violent hands upon them. ^Ve shall 
give them free ingress and egress as God shall persuade 
our consciences." 

There was no more religious persecution in ]S"ew 
Amsterdam, and the sermon of the good men of Flush- 
ing is the law of the land to this day. 



THE FALL OF NEW NETHERLAND 53 



IX. THE FALL OF NEW NETHERLAND 

From the time that the first cabins were built on 
Manhattan Island, New Netherland had a steady 
growth. In IGGI there were about ten thousand peo- 
ple. 'New Amsterdam had become a city with a special 
charter. Brooklyn, then a mile back from the river, 
Flatbush and Flushing were thriving villages on 
Long Island. Bayonne, then called Pavonia, lay on 
the opposite side, across K^orth Eiver. Eensselaerwyck, 
the center of the fur trade, overlooked by Fort Orange, 
liked to imagine- itself the peer of New Amsterdam; 
and Esopus, now Kingston, had become a very 
thrifty town. 

With such a good beginning and steady growth one 
might think that there was a great future for New 
Netherland. As a matter of fact, however, the col- 
ony was soon to have its existence as a Dutch posses- 
sion snuffed out, Avhile the loyal old governor, Peter 
Stuvvesant, was rubbing his eyes in angry amazement. 

The longer the Dutch thought about the freedom 
of the English merchants and farmers in Westchester 
and on Long Island, the more dissatisfied they be- 
came. Their English neighbors could send their prod- 
uce to Boston or even sell it in New xVmsterdam, but 
not even a pound of cheese could go out of New Neth- 



5-i 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 




THE FALL OF NEW NETHEKLAND 55 

erland unless it went to Holland or paid a tax to the 
Company. 

Now the Dutch settlers began to consider the ad- 
vantages that would come about if only Kew Xether- 
land were a colony of England instead of Holland. 
At one time there had been an agreement that no set- 
tlement of the Connecticut colonies should be made 
within ten miles of the Hudson Eiver, but promises 
between nations never amount to much when there are 
no armies and battleships in the background. 

In 1655 a Colonel Pell went leisurely into the place 
west of Anne's Hook, near the mouth of Hutchinson 
Creek, and bought a large tract of land of the Indians. 
It Avas then the home of the unfortunate Ann Hutch- 
inson, who bad settled there in order to get away 
from the Eng- 
lish colonies ; 
it is now Pel- 
ham Manor. 

THE AUTOGRAPH OF STUYVESANT. 

Governor 

Stuyvesant ordered Pell to leave and take with him 
all of his goods and cattle; but Pell merely smiled and 
said — nothing. 

Instead of driving Pell away, as he should have 
done, Governor Stuyvesant appealed to Winthrop, the 
governor of Connecticut, sending a committee selected 
from the leading men of the colon v. At Hartford 




56 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

they were coolly told that Pell had a perfect right to 
the land, inasmuch as the western boundary of Con- 
necticut was the Pacific Ocean. '' Then where is Xew 
J^etherland ? " said the committee. "That we do 
not know,'' replied Winthrop's advisers, shrugging 
their shoulders. When the committee unrolled the 
charter of the West India Company, Winthrop politely 
informed them that it was nothing but waste paper, 
and that a charter to be good must be granted by His 
Majesty King Charles II., of England. 

'Now the only claim to North America that England 
could make was based on the voyages of John and Se- 
bastian Cabot. But in Queen Elizabeth's time England 
had twice said that the discovery of a land did not 
give a nation the right to own it, unless the discovery 
was followed by taking possession and establishing 
colonies or military posts there. To the argument 
that the Dutch had taken actual possession and had 
established a permanent settlement long before the 
Pilgrims had landed at Plymouth, the English would 
not listen. The only satisfaction the Dutch could get 
was that what was law in Queen Elizabeth's time did 
not apply in the reign of Charles II. 

Put while all this argument was going on Charles 
II. was not idle. He had made up his mind to have 
New Netherland at any cost. At that time England 
and Holland were at peace with each other, and the 



THE FALL OF NEW NJ:TnERLAND 57 

king knew that if his plans were discovered, the Dutch 
fleet — and it was a splendid one — would give his ships a 
very hot welcome. So four ships were fitted out with 
great secrecy and, under command of Colonel Kichols, 
were despatched to seize ]S"ew Amsterdam. 

Even when the squadron reached Boston, Governor 
Stiiyvesant did not suspect what was to come. At 
that moment he and all his troops were away guarding 
the settlements along Hudson River from some mis- 
chievous Mohegans Avho had gone on the warpath. 
Indeed, it was not till a messenger brought him word 
that Nichols's fleet was in Lower Bay that he realized 
the situation of affairs. Before the governor had 
reached 'New Amsterdam, however, the vessels had 
passed through the Narrows and were landing sol- 
diers at Brooklyn, and these were joined l)y men from 
the Connecticut colony. The troops gathered at the 
place now occupied b}^ the slips of Fulton Ferry. 

A few days later Nichols sent Governor Winthrop 
of Connecticut to demand the surrender of the city. 
Stuyvesant stormed about and pounded the floor with 
his wooden leg. He swore that he would never sur- 
render, and tore Nichols's letter into pieces. But 
Nichols was anxious to avoid bloodshed, and he tact- 
fully let Governor Winthrop manage the matter. 
Winthrop first won the Council to his side, and the 
Council argued the case with Stuyvesant. When the 



58 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIEE STATE 



latter discovered that no one sided with him, he yielded 
gracefully, and so New Netherland became the colony 
of J^ew York. 

Connecticut did not fare very well by the change, 
and Gov^ernor Winthrop learned too late what was to 




From the iin'mfnig hij I',, 
STUYVESANT DESTROYS 



THE DEMAND FOR SURRENDER. 



be his reward for serving as a cat's-paw. AYhen he 
had boasted that Connecticut reached westward to the 



WHY DUTCH RULE FAILED IN NEW NETHERLAND 59 

Pacific he had relied on the charter given him by the 
king. Later he learned to his chagrin that about every- 
thing west of Bridgeport had been given a second time 
to the Duke of York! '^A king can do no wrong"; 
he may therefore break his promises if he so chooses. 



X. WHY DUTCH RULE FAILED IN NEW NETHER- 
LAND 

Many of the settlers of New Netherland, and es- 
pecially those in New Amsterdam, were very poor. 
There were many whose passage money had beea paid 
to the Xew World, and many who had been helped by 
the West India Company. They had afterwards be- 
come well-to-do and even rich; yet they were found 
complaining very bitterly against both the Company 
and the mother country. Almost always there are 
reasons for complaint when so many people are dis- 
satisfied, and there were very good reasons in this case. 

In the first place, people do not relish anything that 
seems like military rule, and the government of the 
West India Company was very miich <^ that sort. 
There were no soldiers, it is true, but there was the 
one-man power which was quite as effective as a file 
of men with their bayonets fixed. It is sometimes said 
that the Company was harsh, greedy and avaricious, 



60 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 



but this charge is true only in part. It is true that the 
taxes were high and that scarcely anything carried 
bet\yeen the mother country and the colony was 
not taxed; yet it is also true that while the people 
were growing wealthy, the Company was not. More- 
over, though the colonists Avere forbidden by their 




From Vakhfiiie's Manual. 

AN OLD FARMHOUSE ON LONG ISLAND. 

contract to trade in furs, they were secretly doing a 
great deal of fur- trading all the time. 

There was one other matter that was very galling. 
The English settlers who lived on the eastern end of 
Long Island were not within the boundaries of ]^ew 
Netherland; neither were those who had settled on 
the Connecticut shore. Some of these settlers had 
come directly from England, but most of them were 



WHY DUTCH RULE FAILED IN NEW NETHERLAND 61 

people who were dissatisfied with the Puritan rule in 
^lassachusetts. These people were under no foreign 
rule. They Avere orderly and broad-minded; they 
elected their own rulers and made their own laws, and 
paid no taxes except the trifling sums they themselves 
voted. They were prosperous and free; therefore they 
were contented and fairly happy. 

Now, although the Dutch colonists were much bet- 
ter off than ever they had been in their own conntry, 
they were not so well off as their English neighbors, 
and the latter were not at all backward in talkino^ 
about this fact; indeed, they never tired of poking fun 
at their Dutch neighbors who paid all the taxes and 
had nothing to say about the government of the colony. 

There were no natural boundaries between the Xew 
N^etherland and the English settlements of Connecti- 
cut and Long Island. Consequently a great deal of 
trade sprang up between the two peoples. Some 
of this was contrary to the rules of the West India 
Company, but in most cases the Company could not 
help itself and, as a result, was very apt to be the 
loser. As time went on matters kept going from bad 
to worse. All the time, too, the officers of the Company 
were striving harder and harder to keep the people in 
obedience. This was not so difficult with the common 
people, for they were inclined to be orderly and well- 
behaved. But the Patroons were a troublesome lot. 



62 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

They knew how weak the Company really was, and 
they also knew that the governor's threats were little 
better than bluster. 

During his administration, Governor Kieft allowed 
the people to select a committee of twelve to ad- 
vise with him about the welfare of the colony. The 
committee was made up of Patroons and freeholders 
— that is, heads of families who were not under con- 
tract with the Patroons. In the course of a very short 
time, however, the committee learned something they 
did not know before. They found that so long as they 
agreed with the governor and voted for higher taxes, 
they w^ere good fellows enough ; when they disagreed, 
on the contrary, they were promptly sent home. 

Governor Stuyvesant also thought to gain a little 
respite from the complaints of the people by allowing 
them to elect a sort of common council. The towns of 
N^ew Amsterdam, Brooklyn, Gravesend and Flat- 
lands — then called Amersfooet — chose eighteen mem- 
bers among them, and from these the governor ap- 
pointed nine magistrates or justices. But the first 
time the Council attempted to pass a law for the 
betterment of the people, the governor quickly put it 
aside. For this the Company commended him. The 
"privileges" of the people had much of shadow and 
little of substance. 

When the contest between England and Holland 



THE BEGINNING OF ENGLISH RULE 63 

came, and it was to be determined who should be the 
ruler of New Netherland, the people were all of one 
mind. ^'Anj rule," they said, "is preferable to that 
of the West India Company." 

The love for liberty and the desire for self-govern- 
ment might not grow in Holland, but it could not be 
crushed out in New Netherland. It was in the air 
and all the people breathed it. "Taxation without rep- 
resentation " was just as hateful to the Dutch as it 
became later to the English ; in another hundred years 
England was to learn the same lesson in the same 
place, and the people were again to be the teachers. 



XI. THE BEGINNING OF ENGLISH RULE 

In spite of the way in which New Netherland was 
taken by Charles 11. , it was a direct benefit to all con- 
cerned. Holland learned a much-needed lesson, and 
ever afterward treated her colonies with more con- 
sideration. The people were in every way better off; 
they were relieved of burdensome taxes, and they got 
the protection from the Indians which the West India 
Company was always promising but never gave them. 
Moreover, all the colonies from Lake Champlain to 
Florida were now English, and were therefore better 
able to stand united against any enemy. 



64 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

Colonel Nichols, the new governor, was not only 
a scrupulously honest man in all his dealings, 
but he was wise and kind-hearted as well, putting 
forth every effort in his power to improve the con- 
dition of the people and that of the commonwealth. 
The people were permitted to make most of the 




COTTAGES ON BOSTON ROAD. 



laws that governed them; cases that came before the 
courts could be tried by jury, and it was especially 
provided that no Christian should be persecuted on 
account of his religious belief. 

Colonel Nichols did not have quite so large a 
territory to govern as he had expected, for King 
Charles gave about all that is now included in Pennsyl- 
vania and New Jersey to Sir George Carteret and 
Lord Berkeley. The whole of Long Island was given 



THE BEGINNING OF ENGLISH RULE 65 

to New York. It is true that the king had promised 
these lands to other people, but one must remember 
that he was very generous — with promises. It was in 
this manner that Kew York got the boundaries 
which, north, east, and south, are pretty nearly the 
same as those the state has to-day. 

Colonel ]S"ichols remained in Xew York three or four 
years. Then he returned to England, and Francis 
Lovelace was sent in his place. Lovelace did one very 
good thing: he established a letter-post between New 
York and Boston. The mail carrier set out from New 
York on the first Monday of the month. His route 
lay along the Bowery to the street still called Boston 
road, and thence to Greenwich, Stamford, New Haven, 
Hartford and Springfield. From Springfield to Bos- 
ton it followed a route that is now that of the 
Boston and Albany Kailway. Lovelace also established 
the Merchants' Exchange, and the street on which it 
first met is called Exchange Street to this day. 

But great things were about to happen. War had 
again broken the friendship between England and 
Holland, and in August, 1673, a fleet of seven Dutch 
ships enteied New York Bay and came up through 
the Narrows. Governor Lovelace was away, and be- 
fore the people could learn what had happened the 
guns of the fleet were thundering away at the fort in 
the Upper Bay. Before two days had gone by, the 



Q6 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 



Dutch flag was again flying over the city, and New 
York was once more Xew Netherland. The people 
did not take kindly to the change and it was neces- 
sary to keep the fleet in the Bay for some time. 

Peace came again ahnost as unexpectedly as had the 
war, and Holland agreed to give New York back to 







(iniii ! 





I'lOin V((Uittint's j\l(iiuial. 

EXCHANGE PLACE, LOOKIXG TO HANOVER STREET. 

the EnHish. The chief sufferer by the change was 
Governor Lovelace. He had bought a great deal of 
land on credit, and w^hen the Dutch governor learned 
about it, he demanded that Lovelace should at once pay 
for it in full. This of course Lovelace could not do; 
so the new governor not only threw him into a debt- 
ors' prison, but seized the land as well. When the col- 
ony was turned over to England again, Lovelace ap- 



THE FIKST SCHOOLS IN NEW YORK 67 

pealed to the king; but Charles, seeing a chance to 
get a snug fortune for himself, suddenly remembered 
that Lovelace owed him seven thousand pounds; so the 
king took the land himself. Poor Lovelace died with- 
out getting a shadow of justice, and another governor 
was sent— Major Edmund Andros, a man whose name 
will long be remembered in America. 



XII. THE FIRST SCHOOLS IN NEW YORK 

Although there were free public schools in Holland 
—and excellent ones, too — long before the West India 
Company established N^ew E'etherland, yet for many 
years there was neither a church nor a free school 
in the colony. There was possibly one good reason for 
having no school at first; there were no children. The 
people who came to l^ew Amsterdam, as a rule, did not 
expect to stay. It is true that the officers of the Com- 
pany and a few well-to-do people had their families 
with them, but for these there were almost always 
private tutors; for the greater part, however, there 
were few families and fewer children. 

The second governor of the colony, the doughty 
''Doubter," Wouter Yan T wilier, brought with him 
in April, 1633, the first clergyman, Dominie Bogardus, 
and the first schoolmaster, Adam Roelandson. 



68 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

The Dominie, as we have seen, quickly made him- 
self a thorn in the side of Governor Yan T wilier; 
as for the schoolmaster, he soon made himself a 
thorn in the side of about everybody else. When he 
came to 'New Amsterdam he had a house somewhere 

THE AUTOGRAPH OF DOMINIE BOGARDUS. 



near Bleeker street, but that was so far out in the 
country that everyone complained. Then he moved 
into town and built himself a schoolhouse and dwell- 
ing all under one roof. This cost him nearly one hun- 
dred and fifty dollars. 

Whether or not the schoolmaster was over generous 
with his applications of birch, the chronicles of ]S"ew 
Amsterdam do not say. Be that as it may, it is 
in history that "people did not speak Avell of him," 
and in a short time nearly all his pupils had left the 
school. Now, Roelandson's school was not supported 
as public schools are now-a-days; each parent paid for 
the instruction of his children. When there were no 
pupils Roelandson was compelled to look elsewhere for 
his living. 80 he became a washerman, and at this 



THE FIRST SCHOOLS IX NEW YORK 69 

trade he prospered. He did not escape trouble, how- 
ever. Among his customers was one Giles van Yoocht. 
Now Koelandson had agreed to do van Yoocht's laund- 
ering for a year at a certain sum. In the course of a 
few months Koelandson tried to collect the money then 
due, but van Yoocht refused to pay. Koelandson 
forthwith went to law about it, but the court decided 
that he must wash for van Yoocht for the full year be- 
fore he could collect his pay. In many ways Koe- 
landson was not a good man, and he was afterward 
driven from the colony in disgrace. 

In 1645, Arien Jansen van Olfendam opened a school, 
and about the same time Jan Stevenson established an- 
other. Both schools seemed to prosper. Compared 
with the tuition charged at a collegiate school in New 
York City at the present time, the fees were not ex- 
orbitant; for two dried beaver skins a boy or a girl 
could have a whole year's schooling! 

When Peter Stuyvesant was made governor of the 
colony, he became very much in earnest about having 
better schools. He appealed to the directors of the 
Company, and he likewise scolded the people, for up 
to that time, he said, they ''had built the schoolhouse 
with words." His rebuke Avas deserved, for all the 
mone}^ that had ever been set aside for a public school 
had been used for other purposes. 

At first the Company tried to smooth matters over 



70 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 



with vague promises, but Governor Stuyvesant was a 
very determined man. At heart the Company knew 
he was right, for he had pointed out many heavy losses 
that they had suffered as the results of ignorance and 
idleness. The sharp, clear logic of the plucky gov- 
ernor had the desired effect, and in April, 1652, the 




From ///' ixtn.lln'l I,, J \V,n- 

THE UJ.D SCHOOLHOUSE AT TAPPAN. 

first public school in America was opened in a building 
on Pearl Street. A very able and highly educated 
gentleman. Doctor La Montague, was the first teacher, 
and he gave his services without pay. One of his suc- 
cessors received a salary of fourteen and one-half dol- 
lars a month, with an extra allowance of fifty dollars 
a year for his board. 

In a very few years the people learned the value of 
schools and decided that they wanted better ones. So 



A KING, A COUNT, AND A PIRATE 71 

the city agreed to build a house suitable for a Latin 
school, and the Company sent Doctor Cur tins from 
Holland as principal. A few years later Dominie 
Luyck, the governor's chaplain, became principal. 
The two public schools really formed a grammar and a 
high school, each having two teachers, and these re- 
mained in existence so long as Xew Amsterdam was 
controlled by the Dutch. It was the beginning of a 
school system that now enrolls more than a million 
pupils and thirty thousand teachers, at a cost of thirty 
million dollars each year. 



XIII. A KING, A COUNT, AND A PIRATE 

Nowadays one never hears of pirates unless a junk 
of the China Sea, or an Arab felucca, loots some small 
coast village or other. But in these days, between 
swift steamships and people who Avill not tolerate any 
interference with commerce, piracy would be a very 
poor business. About two hundred years ago, how- 
ever, pirate vessels numbering thousands roved the high 
seas. Many of them were the finest and swiftest ships 
afloat, and as a rule they were about as well armed as 
a man-o'-war of that period. 

There may have been a few tender-hearted fellows, 
who, like the '' Pirates of Penzance," never touched a 



72 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

ship that had an orphan aboard, but in the main they 
were about the worst cutthroats and desperadoes in 
existence. Rather strangely, too, many of the masters 
of these vessels were men of good social position and 
education, but they had "gone wrong." In some 
instances the pirate captain was a well-behaved, repu- 
table citizen at home, who was careful to talk but little 
about his sea business, which he carried on in the name 
of some one else. Some were good men who had com- 
mitted political misdeeds for which their lives were 
forfeited; still others were just plain, all-around bad 
men whose necks were fit for nothing but the hang- 
man's noose. 

Just after the Spanish conquest, much of the piracy 
of the Kew World centered about the West Indies. At 
that time the Spanish were the bullies of the West 
India seas and they were in the habit of guessing that 
a foreign vessel was engaged in illegal traffic, and de- 
stroying it without asking any questions. So the for- 
eign vessels used to go heavily armed, and in case of 
attack would help themselves to the cargo and gold 
the Spaniard carried, if the latter was worsted in the 
fight. In the course of tune it was considered quite 
the proper thing to loot and scuttle a Spanish vessel, 
and many pirates touched none but Spanish ships. 

Just about this time, too, England was imposing 
some very unpopular laws on her colonies. She would 



A KING, A C0U:NT, AND A PIRATE 73 

not let the colonies buy goods of any but English mer- 
chants, nor could colonists sell to any country but Eng- 
land unless the goods were of a kind not wanted in 
that country. As a consequence there Avas a great 
deal of illegal trading or " smuggling." 

Now the pirates of the West India seas, when they 
were not too busy scuttling Spanish merchantmen, put 
two and two together in a way that made a very desira- 
ble and convenient four. They needed provisions, med- 
icine, clothing, and many other things which it would 
not be safe to ask for in an English or a Spanish port; 
they likewise had a great deal of merchandise to sell 
which they were quite anxious to dispose of at bargain- 
counter prices. What more natural than that they slip 
into Kew York Bay, the Sound, or some other con- 
venient place along the coast and attend to these 
matters! If a merchant bought goods at less than 
one-quarter of the pirice charged by the English mer- 
chant, he was not given to asking many questions 
about the transaction; moreover, the seller of the goods 
was not in the habit of telling ev^ery thing he knew, 
for fear that he might tell more than he knew — or at 
least more than was good for him. 

Thus the pirates prospered for many years, earning 
a very comfortable living at smuggling, when they 
were not looting Spanish ships. Many a colonist was 
drawn into the business, and more than one high officer 



74 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 



stood in with sea-robbers and smugglers, secretly pro- 
tecting them in the illicit business. 

Finally the oily-tongued Governor Fletcher per- 
suaded King William III. to fit out a vessel to put a 
stop to the growing piracy. The vessel, named the 
Adventure, was procured jointly by the king, the 

Earl of Bellomont and 
Fletcher. William Ividd, 
a well-to-do sailor and 
merchant of good family, 
was made master of the 
ship. Kidd was to cap- 
ture every pirate vessel 
he might overhaul, and 
for his pay he was to 
have one-tenth of all 
that he captured. Such 
a scheme nowadays 
would be considered but little better than piracy it- 
self, but at that time it was thought to be perfectly 
lawful and proper. 

But somehow or other, Kidd was not very successful 
at running down pirate vessels, and his one-tenth of the 
plunder did not pay the expenses of his ship. He there- 
fore sailed for the island of Madagascar, which at that 
time was a famous resort for pirates. He found noth- 
ing there, and soon left that part of the coast to cruise 




KING WILLIAM III. 



A KING, A COUNT, AND A PIRATE 75 

in the iDdiau Ocean. By this time his money and pro- 
v^isions were about gone, and the crew had become 
very ugly. 

Ividd was of course expected to devote his attention 
chiefly to the capture of pirates; he was permitted by 
the rules of war, however, to seize French vessels. But 
days and A^eeks passed by and neither pirates nor 
Frenchmen appeared. Finally a rich Turkish ship 
came in sight and Kidd's crew, in a state of despair, re- 
solved to capture it. At first Kidd refused to permit 
such an act, and in an altercation with his chief gun- 
ner, William Moore, he struck the latter a hard blow 
with a bucket, mortally wounding him. They cap- 
tured the Turk, however, and so Kidd himself became 
a pirate. 

It is not likely that King William would have made 
much ado over a Turkish ship or two, but by this time 
Kidd had fallen from grace to the extent that, after 
looting the Turkish vessel, he fought and captured 
about everything he sighted. Unfortunately one of his 
captures, the Qued ah Merchant, had an English captain, 
and the latter, boiling over with rage, went to London 
to lodge a complaint. At that time there Avere two 
political parties in England, the Tories and the Whigs. 
The men who fitted out Kidd's vessel were Whigs, and 
so the Tories raised a tremendous hue and cry, even 
accusing the king of piracy. 



76 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

In the meantime Kidd burned his own ship, which 
was nearly worthless, put his treasure aboard the Que- 
dah Merchant and sailed for Madagascar. lie sold 
his cargo and returned to the West Indies, more than 
half a million dollars richer. There he heard that 
the king had made him an outlaw, so he took Avdiat 
gold he had in a small vessel and made for Long 
Island Sound. At Oyster Bay he engaged a lawyer, 
and at Gardiners Island he is said to have buried his 
treasure. 

He sent the lawyer to the Earl of I>ellomont, Avho 
had just been made governor of Massachusetts, in 
order to find whether or not he would be safe if he 
visited Boston. No one knows what reply Gk)vernor 
Bellomont returned, but Kidd must have thought 
that he would be safe, for he immediately went to 
Boston, and Avhile there made no effort to conceal 
himself. He even called upon Governor Bellomont 
and made Lady Bellomont a present of some beauti- 
ful je'vvels. Within a few weeks, however, an order for 
his arrest came from England. He was seized, sent 
to England, and tried — not for piracy, but for the 
murder of Moore. After the sentence he was im- 
mediately hanged. 

That Kidd had turned pirate there is no doubt, but 
as his trial on this charo;e would have brouci^ht the 
king as well as the Earl of Bellomont into an unpleas- 



HALF A CENTURY OF ENGLISH RULE 



77 



ant situation, lie was tried for the killing of Moore in- 
stead. Doubtless he deserved severe punishment, but 
the act of putting him to death was a case of politics 
and not one of justice. 



XIV. HALF A CENTURY OF ENGLISH RULE 



In November, 1074, Xew York began a century of 
English rule. The Duke of York did not forget tliat 
he had a colony in the New World, and Sir Edmund 
Andros, his right-hand man, was very careful that 
the people should not forget it. Indeed, Andros seemed 
to think that it was his chief duty to strut around in 
his uniform and 
make the people 
constantly aware 
that he was His 
Majesty's royal 
representative, and 
that not to be al- 
ways thinking of 
the great York was 
nigh to treason. 

That Andros was 
an honest, well- 
mean in o^ man of sir edmund andros. 




78 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 



irreproachable character no one will deny. In his 
3^outh, however, he was a badlj-spoiled boy and when 
he had grown to manhood he became a pompous, fussy 
individual, who might always be counted upon to irri- 
tate the people with Avhom he came in contact and to 
keep himself in hot water. During the ten years of his 

stay he was never out of 
difficulty. He was con- 
stantly meddling with 
affairs in Connecticut, or 
in XcAV Jersey, and as 
often getting the worst 
of it. He afterwards 
tried to interfere with 
matters in Massachusetts 
and was promptly put 
into prison. Finally he 
was made royal gov- 
ernor of Virginia; there, 
to the surprise of every 
one, he made a most excellent magistrate. 

One of the very best governors was Thomas Dongan. 
He not only iiad good common sense, but he was a 
statesman as well. He was the first governor to take 
the people into his confidence; so an assembly for 
bettering the interests of the colony was called, and the 
result was a ^'charter," or constitution. The assem- 




GOVERNOR THOMAS DONGAN. 



HALF A CENTURY OF ENGLISH RULE 79 

bly bad representatives from IS'ew York, Long Island, 
Albany, Staten Island, 'Esopus and Rensselaer wick.* 
There were also delegates from Marthas Vineyard and 
Pemaquid, the former a part of Massachusetts, the 
latter of Maine. 

When the Duke of York became James II., he tried 
to join all the colonies except Pennsylvania into one; 
but before he had succeeded he was driven from the 
throne of England (1688), and William of Orange was 
proclaimed king. Just before this, however, King 
James had removed Dongan and had made a rather 
weak man, Nicholson by name, governor of the 
colony. The people were much in doubt whether 
Nicholson should be considered governor or not, and 
things began to drift in a dangerous way ; for a time 
no one seemed to know what to do. 

But trying times almost always bring out the man 
of the hour, and the man was Jacob Leisler. It is true 
that Leisler had no right to take things into his own 
hands, but he did it nevertheless. He drove the 
French out of the Mohawk Yalley; he overtook and 
punished some of the marauders who burned Schenec- 

* The Assembly divided the colony into the following counties: 
Albany, Dutchess, Orange, Ulster, Suffolk, Kings, Queens, Rich- 
mond, New York, Westchester. The first four have been sub- 
divided. The parts of Kings and Queens not taken into New York 
City form Nassau County. Richmond and a part of Westchester 
have also been annexed to New York City. 



80 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

tady; he fortified Kew York City at the site of Bat- 
tery Park, ami he governed 'for two years about as 
wisely as Dongan had done. lie also called a congress 
of the colonies to arrange an attack on Canada daring 
the French and Indian War then going on. 

When William of Orange appointed Slough ter as 
governor, the latter did not go to Xew York at once, 
but sent some troops under Captain Ingoldsby to pre- 
cede him. Ingoldsby, as lieutenant governor, de- 
manded the control of the colony and possession of the 
fort at Battery Park. Leisler unwisely refused and 
held it against the guns of the fleet until the arrival of 
Sloughter. 

When Sloughter reached N^ew York, Leisler imme- 
diately turned over the command of the colony to him; 
he was, of course, put under arrest and tried on a 
charge of treason. At first it was thought that he 
would receive a merely nominal sentence, but his ene- 
mies plotted against him so bitterly that he was sen- 
tenced to be hanged. Governor Sloughter at first re- 
fused to sanction so unjust a sentence, but Leisler's 
enemies were not to be baffled ; they plied the governor 
Avith liquor, and while in a drunken condition got him 
to sign the death warrant. So Leisler and his son- 
in-law, Milburn, were hanged. The place of execu- 
tion was near the east side of City Hall Park. 

Leisler certainly was tyrannical in his ways, and he 



HALF A CENTURY OF ENGLISH RULE 



81 



did many unwise things, but the circumstances of his 
death were only a little w^ay from murder. Before 
the end of the century, however, his family received 
tardy justice; the Parliament of England restored the 
property that had been seized and honored the acts for 
which he was responsible. 

For years afterwards the colony was fairly w^ell 
ruled. There was one exception, Lord Coenbury, 
who was thoroughly bad. He was despotic in his 
actions and insolent to those w4th whom he came in 
contact. He was also dishonest in business and dis- 
gusting in private life. The Assembly had learned the 
art of managing bumptious magistrates, and having 
the funds of the colony 
under their control, they 
tied the governor's hands 
so that he was obliged to 
do a great many things 
that he did not want to 
do; still better, he could 
not do very much mis- 
chief. 

After a w^hile the gov- 
ernors — and there were 
about thirty of them, all 
told — remained in Eng- 
land. This was fortunate. 




CADWALLADER COLDEN. 




82 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 



for it left the lieutenant governor at the head of af- 
fairs; and during the last thirty-five years, for the 
greater part of the time, there were but two men, 
James de Lacey and Cadwallader Colden, at the head 
of affairs. The governors were content to draw their 

salaries and stay at 
home. One well- 
meaning but weak- 
willed man came 
over to revolutionize 
affairs, but he found 
himself checked at 
every turn, and so 
in despair and 
chagrin he hanged 
himself. 

The secret of the 
matter was the 
action of the As- 
sembly. This body 
was made up of 
men elected by the people, and when the charter was 
given to the colony there was a seemingly innocent 
paragraph which gave the Assembly the control of the 
funds. In order to conduct affairs, the governor must 
have money, and if the Assembly would not vote it for 
him, what could he do ? Usually he did about the best 




LEWIS MORRIS. 



WHAT WILLIAM PENN LOST 83 

thing that could be done; he remained in England, 
and the Assembly was quite willing to pay him his 
salary so long as he stayed there. 

The real governors of New York were Peter Schuy- 
ler, William Smith, Eobert Livingston, Sir AVilliam 
J ohnson and Lewis Morris. Each one was a self-made 
man and each became a great power because of his 
ability and integrity. Each was loyal to the king, but 
he did not forget the rights of the people. And that 
is the reason why New York was so well governed 
during the last half century of its existence as a col- 
ony of England. Doubtless there were other men 
quite as wise and just as shrewd, but these men were 
valued because of their honesty and uprightness of 
character. In their public life they were always on 
the side that was for the right. 



XV. WHAT WILLIAM PENN LOST AND WILLIAM 
JOHNSON GAINED 

Yery few of the colonial governors bothered them- 
selves about the region between Albany and the 
"finger" lakes — and for a very good reason. The 
Iroquois Indians held it, and although the eastern part 
was rather vaguely claimed by the colony, yet neither 
the King of England nor the colony had any title to 



84 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

the land either by treaty or by purchase from the 
Indians. 

In spite of this, many large tracts of land were given 
to settlers — sometimes to a single person, sometimes 
to a company — as "patents"; that is, the king or 
the West India Company, or perhaps the colonial gov- 
ernment, would convey the land to the settler for a 
nominal sum of money, leaving the buyer to bargain 
with the Indians for it. Even the manor lands along 
the Hudson River were usually acquired in this way. 
There was a very large tract of land along the upper 
part of the Susquehanna River which was clearly the 
property of the Cayuga and Onondaga Indians. It 
embraced the fertile valleys of the Chenango, Che- 
mung, Unadilla and Charlotte rivers, as well as the 
valley of Otsego Lake. A large part of the land east 
of the Unadilla was to become the property of the 
settlers. 

Now, the lower part of the Susquehanna had been 
purchased from the Indians by William Penn and was 
therefore a part of Pennsylvania. The upper part 
was a wonderfully fine region for furs and pelts, and 
the traders in Albany were aware that the trade which 
was making them rich Avas coming from that same 
region. 

One morning, late in 1083, the merchants of Albany 
were frightened nearly out of their wits; had a body 



WHAT WILLIAM PENN LOST 



85 



of Mohawks on the warpath souucled their whoop it 
would not have made greater consternation. The 
cause of it all Avas the arrival of two agents of William 
Penn from Philadelphia, who innocently said that they 
were about to purchase these lands from the Indians. 
Penn had discovered the 
value of the lands, and 
in one winter had pur- 
chased there two hun- 
dred packs of beaver 
skins. The Albany mer- 
chants made a discovery, 
too, and it took them 
about three minutes in 
Avhich to make it. They 
discovered that if Penn 
got the upper Susque- 
hanna, their trade would 
be gone. 

Governor Dongan at 
once went to Albany, got into communication with the 
Cayuga and Onondaga sachems, and in three weeks 
had purchased the lands in question. It might not be 
well to inquire into the transaction too closely, but at 
all events the title was held s^ood. The Indians them- 
selves afterwards claimed that they had given only tlie 
use of the lands and not the title to them, and doubt- 




(From the Statue by J. Q. A. Ward in 
Central Park, New York City.) 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 



less they were honest in their claim, for the early set- 
tlers were not always as upright as they were shrewd 
in their transactions with the Indians. 

Two men were bitterly disappointed. Governor 

Howard of Yir- 
ginia went to Al- 
bany to protest 
against the sale, 
but the Indian 
sachems would 
not listen to him. 
William Penn was 
also very angry 
and, in revenge, 
plotted against 
Governor Dongan 
until King James 
deprived the latter 
of his office. In re- 
taliation, William 
of Orange, who 
succeeded James II., removed Penn from the governor- 
ship of Pennsylvania. But the purchase had been 
made, and the land obtained extended nearly as far 
south as the town of Wyaliising, Pennsylvania; the 
latter colony, therefore, profited by the bargain in 
time. 




SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON. 




WHAT WILLIAM PENN LOST 



87 



There was a large area in the Mohawk Yalle}^, how- 
ever, that belonged to the Mohawks, which was not 
included in the colony and did not belong to it for 
more than sixty-five years. It finally came into the 
possession of the settlers through Sir William Johnson. 

Sir William came to _ 
Xew York in 1738. He 
quickly learned the In- 
dian languages, and be- 
gan trading with the 
Indians on his own ac- 
count. Being a very 
shrewd young man, he 
conformed to Indian 
customs, and as he was 
honest in his trading 
with the Indians, he be- 
came very much liked by 
them. In time he mar- 
ried a sister of Joseph 

Brant, the Mohawk war chief. In time, too, he bought, 
large tracts of land and, like many other men, the more 
he had the more he wanted. 

There is a story"^ that once when King Hendrick, 
the head sachem of the Mohawks, was visiting Sir 

* The same story is told of several otlier peoi)le, covering: a period 
of fifty years. It may or may not be true of Sir William Johnson. 




KINC 



88 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

William, he spied a coat richly embroidered with gold 
lace. A day or two afterward he called upon him 
and said, ''Brother, I dreamed you gave me your 
coat of gold. ' ' Now, among the Iroquois, a dream was 
an inspiration from the Great Spirit. The hint was 
not lost upon Sir William, and without a moment's hes- 
itation he gave King Hendrick the coat; about the 
same time, too, he did a lot of thinking. 

A few days later, when King Hendrick was again 
Johnson's guest, Sir William said, ''Brother, I 
dreamed you gave me all the land between the East 
and the West Canada Creek." It took all the stoicism 
of a great and wise sachem to be calm at such an 
audacious demand, but without showing his feelings. 
Kino: Hendrick told Sir William to take the land. 
"But," he said, "Brother, we will quit dreaming." 
Sir William was too upright a man to take such an 
advantage, and he therefore made the Mohawks a 
present of about twelve thousand dollars.* 

* This has also been denied, but in a letter, written in 1764, Sir 
William says: "Their [the Mohawks] friendship induced them at 
different periods to give me deeds of several large tracts, signed in 
public meetings of the whole, for which, as they always expect a 
return, I at times paid them large sums, more than they received 
from many strangers." 



THE IROQUOIS PEOPLE 89 



XVI. THE IROQUOIS PEOPLE 

The Indians of the Iroquoian tribes had probably 
reached a higher stage of enlightenment than any other 
Korth American Indians except the Aztecs and the 
Toltecs, whom Cortez found in Mexico. These In- 
dians had almost reached civilization. They lived in 
"pueblos," — a name given to large tenements of cut 
stone or unburned brick.- Some of the pueblos were 
square in shape; others were half circles. In about 
every instance they consisted of rooms ranged in tiers, 
the highest on the outside. Many of these pueblos 
were large enough to hold two or even three thousand 
people. Montezuma, the '' King," or war chief of the 
Aztecs, lived in rooms that were ornamented with gold, 
and the pueblo itself had well paved courtyards. 

The Indians of New York were not so near civiliza- 
tion; still they were far ahead of any of the tribes one 
finds in the west to-day. The latter, for the greater 
part, have no fixed place of living; their houses or wig- 
wams, in many instances, are made of skins stretched 
over poles, so that they can be quickly pulled to pieces 
and moved away. Other tribes live even more Avretch- 
edly ; their tepees or wickiups consist of a brush frame 

* Xowadays these bricks, eacli about the size of four conuuou bricks, 
are made of a sticky clav. They are sun-dried, not baketl. 



90 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIKE STATE 



stuffed with grass, and they are so poorly built that 
they offer but very little protection against the weather. 
The Senecas and some of the other tribes in New 
York lived in the famous long houses. Some of these 
were a hundred feet in length. The frame consisted 
of poles set in the ground, to which horizontal poles 

were fastened 




AN INDIAN LONG HOUSE. 



%^a^^- ^- with Vine or 

birch twigs. 
The roof was ■ 
usually pointed i 
like that of an 
ordinary cottage. 
Both the sides 
and the roof i 
were covered with strips of elm bark tied in place by 
twigs or by strips of twisted bark. A hall extended [ 
clear through the house from end to end, and on each ; 
side there were the compartments or rooms in which 
the families lived. The rooms were not untidy, and 
they were kept warm in winter by fires built in the 
hallway — one for every four families. Bunks fastened ; 
to the wall in tiers of two or three answered for beds. I 
Long strings of maize braided together by their husks 
dangled from the rafters, while piles of dried squash : 
and beans were stored away in convenient places. '■■ 

All of these food stuffs were grown and gathered by j 



THE IROQUOIS PEOPLE 91 

the women ; indeed the latter did all Avork of that sort. 
The men scorned to do anything except hunt for game, 
or go on the warpath. Stores of smoked meat, usually 
bear-meat or venison, were laid in for winter use; but 
the food kept in a long house was the property of all the 
families. The reason for common ownership was the 
fact that all the families in a long house usually were 
related to one another. There was but one meal cooked 
each day. One of the elder women had the cooking in 
charge, and she divided the food among the families. 

The only cradle in which the baby ever slept was a 
shoe-shaped, fur-lined case into which its little body 
just fitted, and this swung at the mother's back. AVhen 
the child grew older, if a boy, he belonged — not to 
the parents, but to the whole clan. 

A village usually had several long houses, and the 
people of one or more villages formed a clan. In each 




SYMBOLS OF THE CLANS THE TRIBES OF THE WOLF, BEAR 

AND TURTLE. 

of the Iroquoian tribes in New York there was a Wolf, 
a Bear and a Turtle clan ; and in later times there were 
others— sometimes eight or ten in all, and always 
named after animals. 



92 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

Each clan had one or more officers called sachems, 
who were elected by both the men and the women; 
for in every council the women had as much to say as 
the men. There was also a head sachem of each tribe. 
The sachems were not war chiefs; they were much 
more like village trustees or justices of the peace. The 
Avar chiefs were also chosen by the people, and in addi- 
tion to the head war chief of the tribe, or military com- 
mander, there were at times a great many under chiefs 
— one for about every fifty or more warriors. 

The laws by which they governed themselves have 
never been well understood by white men. The tribes 
and clans themselves demanded strict obedience, how- 
ever, and severe punishment was visited on any one so 
unfortunate as to break the laws. Some of the laws were 
made by the clans and the tribes, but in other instances 
they were made in the Great Council, when sachems 
from all the tribes met to talk over the affairs of the 
nation. There was a President of the Council, and 
the government in many respects was like that of any 
modern republic. 

It was a very easy route from the Mohawk Yalley 
across to the Susquehanna, and the trails across 
the divide to Cherry Yalley and Unadilla Yalley 
were worn deep long before the first white man came 
to the New World. Indeed, the railways leading south 
from central New York have been built along those 



THE IROQUOIS PEOPLE 



98 



same trails. The present road from Sydney to Unadilla 
was made by widening the old trail. In one or two 
places the trails are said still to be seen. 

So as the Iroquoian clans and tribes grew in num- 
ber, the Indians pushed southward through these val- 
leys into the fertile lands of the Susquehanna,* or "river 




From an old print. 

THE INDIAN VILLAGE ON MANHATTAN ISLAND. 



of long reaches." In time there were many villages 
along not only the river valleys leading into the Sus- 
quehanna, but all along the valley of that river itself. 
Fortunately many of the old Indian names — Unadilla, 
Oswego, Tioga, Towanda, Chemung, Oneonta, Che- 

* The name "Susquehanna" is not an Iroquois word ; the name 
of the river was " Gawanowanana," or river of the great islands. It 
is more than likely that Delawares (of the Algonquian family) gave it 
the name it now bears, they having been driven from the valley by 
Iroquoian peoples. 



94 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

nango— are still retained to designate the modern town, 
and these are mixed with names that could have come 
nowhere except from England. 

There was a large village on the present site of Coop- 
erstown that had been there for more than one hundred 
years before the settlement by the whites was begun. 
At the mouth of Schenevus Creek there was another, 
known to have been built as the frontier of the Mo- 
hawks. At both places there are old burying grounds. 
By far the most important village, however, was Ogh- 
waga, now Onaquaga, about five miles from the town 
of Windsor. It was a great trading-place where the 
Delawares from the south met friendly Mohawk In- 
dians from the north. After a while Dutch traders 
from Fort Orange and Schenectady began going there, 
and then the missionary followed. So in 1750 there 
were trading-posts, a castle^ or fort, a church, a school 
and several hundred people. 

The Indians of these villages seemed to have been 
peaceable and thrifty. They encouraged trade with 
the whites, probably from a desire to get firearms. 
They cultivated large crops of maize, beans, and squash ; 
what is still more surprising, they had an abundance 
of apple orchards and vineyards. Less is known about 
the villages of the Indians in the Mohawk Yalley, but 

* In most instances tlie word "castle," as a part of a place name, 
signifies that the place was an Indian village guarded by a fort. 



THE INDIANS AND THE IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY 95 

all that has been learned shows that the Iroquois 
were gradually reaching a condition of civilization. 

The coming of the white man ended their upward 
progress. In contact with him they could not reach 
further in their own civdization, nor could they adapt 
themselves to his. They could learn his vices, how- 
ever, and this they did only too well. And this in the 
long run was their undoing. There may be, and prob- 
ably are, nearly as many Iroquois as were living two 
hundred and fifty years ago, but their power and their 
wonderful organization is gone forever. 



XVII. THE INDIANS AND THE IROQUOIS 
CONFEDERACY 

One who sees the Indians on the reservations to-day 
would be apt to get very wrong ideas of the Red Men,* 
as they are sometimes called, whom the early settlers 
of New York and New England found. The Indians 
one finds on the reservations have long since lost the 
spirit that used to make them admired, even when 
feared and hated. We almost alwa3^s call them sav- 
ages, and indeed they were savage and bloodthirsty to 
their enemies, but the Indians of New York and New 

* They were called Red Men for two reasons. The color of the 
skin in most families inclines to copper-brown; this was heightened 
by the free use of red paint with which they ornamented their faces. 



96 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

England were learning the art and the benefits of or- 
ganized government when tlie wliite men came to the 
New World. 

Along the Hudson Eiver, below Albany, were the 
Mohegans."^ They belonged to the Algonquian fam- 
ily and were close of kin to the Delaware tribes. The 
Mohegans were not friendly with the Indians to the 
northward and had but little to do with them. There 
were many Mohegans in Long Island and also in 
Connecticut, where they were called Pequods. Many 
of the Moheo^ans of New York moved to Connecticut 
and but very few of them escaped after the Pequod 
war. 

Most of the Indians whom the earlier settlers found 
in the state belonged to the Iroquoian famih^ Long 
before the white man came to America, tribes of this 
family had left their former home somewhere in the 
west and pushed eastward. Some followed the St. 
Lawrence River; some settled in the southern states, 
about North Carolina, Avhere they were called Chero- 
kees ; many of the former finally reached the central 
part of New York. There were the Onondagas in the 

* " Mohegan " and " Mohawk" are probably different forms of the 
same word, which means "wolf." The Indians did not call them- 
selves by these names, nor were the tribes related to each other. 
Most likely they bore names so similar because each tribe belonged to 
the wolf clan of their respective families. In Canada the Mohawks 
were called " Loups," a French word also meaning " wolf." 



THE INDIANS AND THE IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY 97 

region of Avhich Syracuse is now the center, and the 
Mohawks in the valley which still bears their name; 
there were also the Oneidas, Senecas, Cayugas, and 
Eries, each in the neighborhood of the lake that has 
been named for them. There were also the tribes called 
the St. Eegis, now in the northern part of the state, 
and the Susquehannocks, or Conestogas in the basin 
of the Susquehanna River. 

When the Iroquoian tribes first migrated eastward, 
those who followed the St. Lawrence Yalley found a 
very stubborn foe in the Algonquian Indians who 
were there before them. Indeed, most of them who 
were not killed in the constant wars had become so 
reduced in numbers that they were glad to leave; so 
they crossed Lake Ontario and made a settlement at 
the mouth of the Oswego River. There were then only 
three tribes— the Senecas, Onondagas, and Mohawks. 

From this time on they had pretty nearly everything 
their own way. At first they found a few straggling 
tribes of other Indians, but in a short time there were 
none left. They increased rapidly in numbers and 
strength, and in time two new tribes, the Oneidas and 
Cayugas, were formed, so they occupied all of the 
central part of the State— the great level highway 
from Albany to Rochester and beyond. 

Of all the Iroquoian tribes, the Mohawks were the 
fiercest. They kept up such relentless w^ar upon the 



98 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 




THE INDIANS AND THE IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY 99 

Indians of the Adirondack Mountains that in time 
those who were not killed fled for safety to the St. 
Lawrence Valley . They drove the Mohegans into 
Connecticut, or else to the vicinity of Kew York 
Bay. The very siglit of a Mohawk would cause a 
Mohegan, or even a number of them, to flee in terror. 
The latter never for a moment thought of fighting a 
Mohawk. 

Half a century, perhaps, before the first voyage of 
Columbus, the Iroquoian tribes, listening, as Mr. Long- 
fellow tells us, to the voice of the sky-god Hiawatha,* 
formed themselves into a confederacy or brotherhood. 
The plan could not have been better. The country about 
them abounded with game, and from it open valleys led 
north, south, east and west. Indeed, they were merely 
taking advantage of what in later years made this region 
one of the most important highways of traffic in the 
world. 

Thus Avas formed the Five Nations. Years after- 
wards the Tuscaroras, who found life among their Al- 
gonquian neighbors in the north pretty full of hard 
knocks, moved to New York and joined the confeder- 
acy; and so the latter became the Six Xations. It 
was a wonderful brotherhood and tliey prospered as a 

* The legend of Hiawatha belongs not to the Iroquois but to the 
Chippewas. If a Hiawatha ever existed, he was probably a great 
chief whose memory was greatly beloved. The advice given by the 
sky-god was most wise, but it was never spoken to the Iroquois. 



100 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 



result. The Eries and other kindred tribes refused to 
join, and because of their refusal they were either killed 
or driven out of the country. 

When the Dutch built their trading-posts in and 

about Albany, 
they had an eye 
to the fur trade 
that was to fol- 
low ; a million or 
more pelts were 
needed every 
year, to be made 
into wraps, coats, 
caps and muffs, 
and this part of 
America was the 
chief source from 
which Europeans 
o-ot their furs. 
Xow the Indians 
were the very 
best of hunters and trappers, and so the Dutch Com- 
pany furnished them Avith traps, muskets, and pow- 
der. They also paid for the skins with ])lankets, 
tobacco, trinkets, jewelry, and sometimes witli li(jUor. 

Thus the Six Nations grew in power until it seemed 
as though they were to have no rivals among Red Men. 




A CHIEK OF T]IE SIX NATION.^ 



THE INDIANS AND THE IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY 101 

Then their career received a hard blow. The French 
began to build their forts all along the St. Lawrence 
and the Great Lakes in order to hold ]^ew France 
against the English. The Indians resented the intru- 
sion upon their lands, but they were no match for 
the French. Moreover, the French made friends with 
the Algonquian tribes, v/ho were the mortal foes of 
the Six Nations. 

So finally the Six Katiofis cast their lot with the 
English. At the time of the War of the Eevolution 
most of them remained loyal to the English, for they 
looked upon their treaties with the king as something 
sacred. But because of their loyalty they incurred 
the hatred of the colonists. And when peace was 
declared the king forgot all about them; their 
names were not even written in the treaty. The}" 
had sacrificed everything that was dear to them in 
order to be faithful to an unwritten promise, and this 
was their reward. 

A few years afterwards Joseph Brant, a famous 
chief, persuaded the king to grant the Six Nations 
lands near Montreal, and thus many of them moved 
to Canada, where their descendants are living. Wash- 
ington also urged the people of New York not to 
molest those who remained. A large tract of land 
was given to them, but it was purchased from them 
only a few years afterward. About five thousand 



102 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

of their descendants are living on reservations* in the 
state. 



XVIII. THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS— THE 
BEGINNING OF THE STRUGGLE 

While the English were making settlements along 
the middle Atlantic coast of ISTorth America, the Span- 
ish and the French were both planting trading-posts 
here and there in their own possessions. The Span- 
ish claimed Florida and Mexico, and for a long time 
thej held the territory in which they had established 
their settlements, but they made no material progress. 

The French had built trading posts on the St. Law- 
rence and had also made a stockade. Fort St. Louis, on 
the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. They gradually ex- 
tended their trading-posts and forts along the Great 
Lakes, and then down the Mississippi River to its 
mouth. Finally they concluded to organize the whole 
domain into a great empire. That part of the conti- 
nent drained by the Mississippi River was called 

* The reservations are as follows: Tuscarora, in Niagara county; 
Cattaragus, in Erie and adjoining counties ; Tonawanda, in Niagara 
and adjoining counties ; Allegany, in Cattaragus county; Onandaga, 
in Onandaga county ; St. Regis, in Franklin county; and Shinnecock, 
on Long Island. Most of the Indians are Iroquois, but their tribtil 
organization is about gone. ]\I<my, if not most of them, are of mixed 
Indian and white, or Indian and Negro descent. 



FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS— THE BEGINNING 108 

Louisiana; the basin of the Great Lakes and the St. 
Lawrence Kiver was named New France. 

JSTow, in a newly settled country it is almost impos- 
sible to make the boundary lines between political divi- 
sions so plain that there will be no contention. Indeed, 




FRENCHMKX ATTACK IX 



at the present time, in the United States, there are but 
very few boundary lines that are wholly free from 
dispute. 

It is not strange, then, that there should be a great 
deal of friction between the colonies along their fron- 
tiers. To increase the ill-feeling, England and France 
were several times at war, and the fightiug always ex- 
tended to the colonies. In one of these wars, called 



104 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

" King William's " (1688-1697), there was no gain 
to either nation, but much was lost ; many farms 
and settlements were destroyed, and many colonists 
were massacred. There was mourning all along the 
frontiers, for but few households escaped Avithout 
loss. 

In the next. Queen Anne's War ('1702-1713), the 
English got Acadia, New Brunswick, I^ova Scotia 
and some of the islands near by. Daring this time 
the French not only strengthened the old forts along 
the Mississippi Kiver, but they also built new ones 
along the main riv^er and the Ohio. They also built a 
very strong fortress on a high promontory that over- 
looked the harbor of Louisburg on the southeast end 
of Cape Breton Island. This fortress, they boasted, 
''could never be taken, even if it were defended only 
by women." 

Nevertheless, in a short struggle called King George's 
War (171:1-171:8), Governor Shirley of Massachusetts 
made up his mind not only that it could, but that it 
should be captured. So he persuaded the people of 
New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut to help 
him. The young men of the colonies were fired by 
his eloquence, and more than four tliousand joined him. 
The}^ sailed away in fourteen armed ships and a great 
many transports, commanded by a brave old fighter 
named William Pepperell. Commodore Warren came 



FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS— THE BEGINNING 105 



back from the West ladies in order to take command 
of the fighting ships. 

The French did not know anything about the pro- 
posed attack until Pepperell had landed his troops and 
Warren had surrounded the fortress with his fleet. 
In a very short time the 
French saw that their 
case was without hope, 
and after a few weeks 
the fortress surrendered. 
There was but little fight- 
ino- ; the French were 
simply frightened out. 
But the most foolish 
thing was yet to happen. 
When King George's 
War ended, the English 
were so blind to the great 
struggle before them that 
they gave Louisburg back 
to the French merely for 
the asking. 

By this time, however, 
it had become very apparent to the iieo])le in the 
colonies that a great struggle was near at hand, and 
that one or the other, the English or the French, must 
be driven from North America; the continent was not 




THE EXGLISH COLONIAL TERRITORY 
IN 1750. 



106 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

large enough for both. The French government al- 
ready knew it, but the English ministry did not; they 
did not even seem to know that their chief enemy was 
doing any mischief by getting into western New York 
and Pennsylvania. Not until the French troops be- 
gan building the forts in the Allegheny River valley, 
did the English government begin to see that serious 
things were a-doing. One of these forts was near the 
present city of Erie; another. Fort Le Boeuf, was not 
many miles from Chautauqua Lake; still another was 
near Dunkirk; while the most important of all was at 
the mouth of Niagara River. 

Then the governor of Virginia, the colony which 
claimed the Allegheny Yalley, sent young George 
Washington to find just what the French were doing. 
Washington went to Fort Le Boeuf with the governor's 
message. The French officer commanding the fort 
was very polite, but he managed to tell Washington in 
a very nice way that Avhat the French were doing 
was none of Governor Dinwiddie's affairs. Then the 
French went very hurriedly to the junction of the 
Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, where the great 
city of Pittsburg now stands, and drove away some 
traders and soldiers who were building a trading-post 
there. When the English learned this they knew that 
the war was on. 

The old frontier, a very vague sort of line between 



FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS — THE RESULT 107 

the colonies and New France, lay across Avhat is now 
the State of New York. North of Lake Ontario and 
the St. Lawrence Kiver belonged to New France, and 
in addition the French claimed all the western part 
of the State. Much of the disaster and bloodshed re- 
sulting from the war, therefore, fell upon the colonists 
in New York, as did also the horrors of the preceding 
struggles. The last was called the French and Indian 
War because the French had the Indians of several 
tribes to help them. But when, in 1700, the great 
struggle was over, there were no French possessions 
left in North America. All the territory they had 
claimed east of the Mississippi was given to the English. 
Everything they claimed west of that river, was made 
over to Spain. Let us now learn what was going on 
in New York during those eventful years. 



XIX. THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS— HOW 
THE ENGLISH WON 

Throughout much of their borders the English and 
the French colonies were separated by the ranges of 
the Appalachian Mountains, and as these were cov- 
ered in most places by heavy timber, they were well- 
nigh impassable. In three places, however, there 
were low passes and valleys through which there 



108 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

was an easy passage across the mountains. One of 
these lay along the Potomac Kiver and then across to 
the head of the Ohio, where Pittsburg now stands. It 
was this route that young Washington took when he 
carried the message from Governor Dinwiddie, and it 
was not far from Pittsburg that General Eraddock 
was defeated and killed. 

Another route, at that time the most important, lay 
along the valleys of Lake Champlain and the Hudson 
Eiver. There was clear sailing for vessels the entire 
length of Lake Champlain, and the land route along- 
side the lake was level enough for a Av^agon road. 
Sometimes it was better to cross the very short portage 
between Lake Champlain and Lake George; quite as 
often, however, it was just as convenient to go along 
the level valley from Whitehall to Fort Edward, and 
then down the Hudson. At Crown Point, a peninsula 
that almost cuts the lake in two, the French built a 
fort, and on Ticonderoga, another table-land, they 
built another. Xot only could the guns of these forts 
sweep both sides of the lake, but they commanded the 
narrow pass on each side as well. 

A third passage, now the most important route of 
travel in the country, was the pass along the valley of 
the Mohawk and thence to the Niagara Kiver and Fort 
Niagara. From this route there were nearly level side 
valleys leading to the Susquehanna on the south and to 



FKENCH AND INDIAN WARS — THE RESULT 



109 



Lake Ontario on the north. One of the chief gateways 
leading from Lake Ontario was the mouth of Oswego 
Eiver. The latter was a fine harbor at that time and 





FT. NECESSITY 



EARLY TRADING POSTS IN NEW 
YORK STATE. 




therefore the French 

could easily make a 

landing if it were not 

guarded ; so the English 

built a fort there. The French had 

another, Fort Frontenac, across the 

lake, nearly opposite, where Kingston 

now is. 

During the first four years of the French and Indian 
War the French had almost everything their own 
way. The English regular troops did not know^ how 
to fight the Indians, and the militia, or soldiers of the 



110 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

colonies, did not always have good leaders. What 
was still worse, they could not get along well together. 
]N"ot only were the English soldiers very tyrannical 
toward the colonial militia, but they were not 
always well-behaved; hence they were hated both b}^ 
the colonists and the militia. It is not surprising then 
that the French were having the best of the campaign. 

The French, moreover, had a new commander, a 
young man named Montcalm, who not only patched 
up peace with the Iroquois, but made them his 
friends. Still more, he persuaded the Mohawks and 
other tribes to keep away and to give no help to the 
English. One morning he ate breakfast with some In- 
dian chiefs at Fort Frontenac ; that same night he drove 
the English out of Fort Oswego. Then, to shoAV the 
Indians that he did not want any of their lands, he tore 
down the forts in the harbor and gave them the land. 

It was a very gloomy time for the colonists. The 
fort built by Sir William Johnson at the head of Lake 
George was captured by Montcalm. The soldiers were 
disarmed and ordered to go to Fort Edward, a few 
miles to the southward, but the Indians set upon them 
and massacred many while they were on the way.* 

* For tliis, not Montcalm, but the English were responsible. The 
English traders supplied liquor to the Indians, and the latter, in a 
drunken frenzy, began the work of massacre. That more were 
not slain was due to the bravery of Montcalm, who in person rescued 
many. 



FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS— THE RESULT 111 

During the summer of 1758, General Abercrombie, with 
the largest army at that time ever gathered in the col- 
onies, attempted to capture Fort Ticonderoga, but it 
proved an utter failure. Abercrombie had nearly 
five times as many soldiers as had Montcalm, but he 
kept well out of the range of firing while his men were 
mowed down by the French guns. A still more cruel 
blow was the destruction of Palatine Tillage. While 
the English troops were taking life easy in their winter 
quarters, a band of Indians crept upon the village, 
murdered forty people, burned the houses, and carried 
the rest of the villagers, about one hundred and fifty, 
into captivity. 

In the valley of the Ohio River affairs had been 
nearly as bad, and the English had about given up their 
cause as lost when a little matter— it seemed very, very 
trifling — turned the tide of defeat into a great flood of 
victory. The French had never grown the foodstuffs 
they required in America; nearly all their supplies 
were brought from France and stored where most con- 
venient, until little by little they could be sent to the 
various forts. 

Now it happened that almost all their supplies at 
this time were at Fort Frontenac, waiting to be sent to 
Fort Duquesne and the other posts. A militia officer, 
Colonel John Bradstreet, begged the council of war to 
allow him to destroy these stores, and so persistent 



112 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

was he that the council reluctantly granted him per- 
mission. Bradstreet gathered about twenty-seven 
hundred men, moved quickly to Fort Oswego, crossed 
the lake, and before the French knew their enemy 
was near, Fort Frontenac was captured and forever 
lost to them. All the vast stores were either taken 
or destroyed. From the flush of easy victories the 




FORT NIAGARA AS IT APPEARED IN 1814. 

French now saw but one thing before them — starva- 
tion. The chain of forts which had been squeezing 
the colonies to death was at last broken. 

There were a few skirmishes, but they did not 
amount to much. Washington gradually closed in 
around Fort Duquesne, and then the French set fire 
to the buildings and started down the Ohio. When 
the English flag was raised over the smoking ruins 
all agreed to call the place Pittsburg in honor of 



FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS— THE RESULT 113 

AVilliam Pitt, the best friend the colonists had in 
England. 

In the meantime Sir William Johnson made a quick 
march against Fort IS'iagara and captured it. The 
chain was now not only broken, but the links Avere 
severed. The French then gathered at Quebec, the 
strongest citadel in America, but General Wolfe with 
a few picked men scaled the walls, and after a hot fight 
the great fortress was taken. Montcalm aud Wolfe, 
than Avhom two better men and braver soldiers never 
met, both fell that day. 

Thus the dream of a great French empire in America 
vanished into nothing. 



XX. THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS— WHAT 
NEW YORK GAINED IN THE STRUGGLE 



In many respects, the close of the French and Indian 
War may be called the beginning of the history of the 
real ^N'ew York. Before the war 'New York could 
claim hardly more than the Hudson Eiver Talley, the 
western end of Long Island, and a few small settle- 
ments scattered here and there in the central part. 
Within a very few years after the treaty (1763), there 
was a very large area added to the colony. 

All of what is now the central and western part of 



114 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

the state belonged to the Indians. JMow, the Indians 
had become both alarmed and ugly on account of the 
white man's greed for land, and for this reason not a 
few took sides with the French. The first thing was 
the settlement of a new boundary or frontier between 
the English and the Indians. All agreed that Sir 
William Johnson was the best man to do this. So Sir 
William sent great loads of flour, rice, meat, and other 
provisions to Fort Stanwix, and called the various 
chiefs and head men together — more than three thou- 
sand, all told. 

Sir William was not only a good soldier, but he was 
a very good business man as well, and when he ex- 
plained what the English wanted, and what the Indians 
needed, there was no dissent. The Indians needed 
money and provisions badly, for the wars had brought 
them face to face with starvation. And both the English 
and the Indians wanted a boundary wliich should plainly 
separate the lands of the one from those of the other. 

Each gained what was most needed. The boundary 
extended from Fort Stanwix, now Rome, southward 
along Unadilla River to the present village of Deposit, 
and then across to and down the Ohio River. For 
the lands to the east of this boundary the Indians re- 
ceived more than $50,000. Then Sir William again 
showed the wisdom of a statesman. He called various 
chiefs and tribesmen whom he found had been un- 



FEENCH AND INDIAN WARS — THE RESULT 115 

justly treated by the English, and made them presents 
of money or of goods, to compensate them for their 
losses. 

The war certainly had brought sorrow and ruin to 
very many families, and it had piled up a debt of more 
than one and a half million dollars. The latter, how- 




Redrawn from an old print. 

THE SOUTH VIEW OF OSWEGO ON LAKE ONTARIO. 

ever, was but a trifle compared with the great gains, 
for the new lands acquired were worth many fold tbeir 
cost in money; indeed, there are places now in this 
region where the entire debt would scarcely buy an 
acre of land. 

In the various campaigns and travels, too, the men 
of New York had made friends and acquaintances with 
people living in the other colonies. Each had learned 
much from the other, and both were learning what 
great possibilities there were in the country of their 



116 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 



adoption.' They were also learning that when they 
worked together they could do much better than when 
each worked alone. Still more, the war had caused 
the building of forts and blockhouses in various places 
along the frontier, and in nearly every case the fort 
became a town or even a large city. 

There were good reasons for this. The fort some- 
times was built at a harbor, so that troops and supplies 
could be easily landed ; sometimes, for the same reason, 
it was placed at the head of navigation on the bank of 

a river. Now, 
because the forts 



were there, the 
traders used to 
build their posts 
and store-houses 
near by, partly 
because it was 
the safest 2)lace, 
and partly be- 
cause people were 
always coming 
and going. So 
the forts became villages that were to grow in popu- 
lation long after the forts had been forgotten. ()g- 
densburgh grew up about Fort Presentation; Al- 
bany resulted from Fort Orange ; the city of Buffalo 




TOWNS ON THE SITES OF OLD FORTS. 



THE MASSACEE OF SCHENECTADY 117 

grew up near Fort Erie; Fort Schuyler was the begin- 
ning of Utica; Fort Stanwix became Kome, and the 
city of Oswego marks the site of Fort Oswego. Fort 
Hunter, a mission among the Mohawks, Fort Ticon- 
deroga, Fort Ann, and Crown Point are villages built 
at or near old forts by the same name. 

So the colony of New York grew in wealth and 
strength. Settlers of the best sort came over from 
Europe. They could get the best of land almost for 
the asking, and they could get a much better living 
from their farms in the colony than from the same 
amount of land in their native country. In the remote 
settlements they lived rather roughly, it is true, but 
they also enjoyed one thing they could not expect at 
home — liberty. 



XXI. THE MASSACRE OF SCHENECTADY 

Of all the cruel acts that war brings to the doors of 
humanity, few, if any, are more horrible than the 
burning of Schenectady and the massacre of its inhab- 
itants. The Schenectady of to-day with its great elec- 
trical shops and beautiful homes is a thriving city of 
about thirty-five thousand people. Situated in the 
heart of the Mohawk A^alley, we now always think 
of it as connected with the eastern part of the state; 



118 THE MAKING OP^ THE EMPIRE STATE 

who living to-day could imagine it a little stockaded 
Dutch village — the extreme outpost of the western 
frontier ? 

It is more than two hundred and fifty years since 
Arendt Van Curler, looking about for a place to build 
a new trading-post, declared that the lands of the Mo- 
hawk Yalley were the most beautiful the eye ever saw. 
Yan Curler was a very remarkable man and far more 
^capable than most of the men of his times. He was a 
cousin of Patroon Yan Eensselaer, and for a long time 
the Patroon's chief business manager. This position 
put Yan Curler in very close touch with the Indians 
and, because of his fearlessness and honesty, the In- 
dians always called him their best friend. Indeed, for 
a long time they used the term ^'Corlear" as a title 
of regard for any •one whom they esteemed. 

So when Yan Curler founded the trading-post of 
Schenectady, none of the villagers stood in fear of the 
Indians. So long as "Corlear," as they called him, 
.was living the Indians were the settlers' true friends.^ 
Moreover, the Indians about Schenectady were good 
fighters, and were greatly feared by the other tribes. 

When King William's War began, the French gov- 
ernor of Canada was Count Frontenac. Years before 

* Van Curler was accidentally drowned near Split Rock, in Lake 
Champlain, while on his way to visit the governor of Canada. This 
sad accident occurred in 16G7. 



THE MASSACRE OF SCHENECTADY 



119 



he had been governor of Canada, and in his old age he 
had been sent back there because a strong person was 
needed at the head of affairs. In the time of his 
manhood Frontenac had been a wonderful man, and 
no matter where or with whom he was, he was always 
the leader. He could be the polished courtier in Paris, 




A DISTANT VIEW OF OLD SCHENECTADY. 

or the dashing general in the saddle; decked with 
feathers and daubed with war paint, it was just as easy 
for him to play Indian chief in earnest. 

On his way across the ocean, Frontenac had planned 
a grand scheme by which the Dutch and the English 
were to be driven not only from New York, but from 
New England as well. The plan was to send a large 



120 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

force of troops through the valleys of Lake Champlain 
and the Hudson River to Albany, while a French fleet 
should attack New York City. Albany once captured, 
the army could go down the Hudson in boats and help 
the fleet. The land and all the property was then to 
be divided among Frontenac's officers and soldiers. 

The plan was a fine one, but several things happened. 
Frontenac was seventy years old at that time, and 
shortly after he reached Canada he was racked by ill- 
ness and became so weak that he had to be carried 
around in a chair. Moreover, the Iroquois, the mortal 
enemies of the French, had just swooped down upon 
the Canadian settlements, killing all in sight; every- 
where were mournful scenes of desolation. Montreal 
barely escaped destruction, but Fort Frontenac was 
captured and its store of muskets and ammunition be- 
came the booty of the Indians. So Frontenac's great 
scheme came to naught. 

But if he could not carry out one plan he could try 
another. In Canada there were a great many Mo- 
hawk Indians who had been driven from New York. 
Some of these had gathered around the Jesuit missions 
at Montreal. They were learning the arts of peace, 
but they had not forgotten the war dance. Therefore, 
instead of the war campaign that was to sweep the 
English off the face of North America, Frontenac sent 
out three scalping parties. One of these went to New 



THE MASSACRE OF SCHENECTADY 



121 



Hampshire and another to Maine, where they left a 
trail of fire and blood. 

The third, consisting of about two hundred French 
adventurers and Mohawks, came by way of Lake Cham- 




Fioiii anold prud. 

FRENCHMEN ATTACKING AN INDIAN FORT. 

plain. They were not strong enough to attack Albany 
and, indeed, they made no attempt against it. Their 
seventeen days' march had been full of most terrible 
suffering. Their scant clothing was torn into shreds, 
and many of them had naught but moccasins on their 



122 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

feet, with which to wade swamps and crawl over sharp, 
cutting shale. It was a march through rain, sleet and 
snow with no tents to shelter them at night and not half 
enough food to satisfy their hunger. 

When they reached Schenectady, in a snow storm, on 
that terrible February night, they were maddened with 
much suffering and crazed by starvation. About mid- 
night they crept through the open gates of the pali- 
sade that surrounded the village, and then with a ter- 
rilic war-whoop began the work of slaughter. The 
ten Connecticut soldiers who held the blockhouse made 
a brave fight, but were soon slain. Sixty of the vil- 
lagers were killed outright, and then the scalping party 
stopped to devour whatever food could be found. Next 
morning they liberated sixty of their prisoners, but 
hurried towards Montreal with thirty others whom 
they tortured to death. Before leaving they set fire 
to the houses, and by noon heaps of ashes and mangled 
corpses were all that remained of Schenectady. 



XXII. THE REVOLT OF THE COLONIES— THE 
CAMPAIGN AGAINST CANADA 



The people of the colonies probably had never been 
more strongly attached to the mother country England 
than at the close of the French and Indian wars. Most 



THE REVOLT OF THE COLONIES — CANADA 



123 



of them, moreover, were far better off than at any 
time before. But the Avars had cost a large sum of 
money, and King George III. thought that the colonies 
should help to pay the bill. In this he Avas quite 
right; but unfortunately he went about it in such a 
Avay as to make the colonists declare they Avould do 




COLONISTS BURNING THE STAMP SELLER IN EFFIGY. 

nothing of the kind. Indeed, in a very short time the 
people were at a Avhite heat AAath anger. 

In the first place the king revived the old naviga- 
tion laws that his predecessors had quietly put aside 
because they hurt the colonies and did England no 
good. Through Parliament he also ordered that revenue 
stamps be placed on glass, paints, lead, tea, and paper, 



124 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

and also on all documents in writing. This part of 
the plan failed miserably. In i^ew York and New 
England the stamps and stamped paper were burned ; 
the tea was either thrown into the sea or allowed to 
mold in the vessels and warehouses. A third scheme 
was the tax on sugar and molasses imported from the 
West Indies, unless the articles came from a British 
port; but the people would have none of that either. 

Massachusetts and the other New England colonies 
were the first to resist these unwise acts, and rather sin- 
gularly the king granted about every demand that was 
made by them. He did so too late, howev^er; for his 
troops quartered in Massachusetts had shot down the 
people and had been shot down in return, until patch- 
ing up the quarrel was out of the question. And 
right there the king and his supporters made another 
great mistake. Although they were willing to grant 
everything the colonies asked, the king declared the 
latter must be punished for their rebellious conduct. 

When that part of the king's plan Avas made plain 
the colonies feared that their time had come, and were 
wondering if separation from the mother country 
would not be the final result. The king went right 
on with his punishment. His troops, however, were 
driven into Boston from Lexington and again from 
Bunker Hill. Within a month after the battle of 
Lexington, Fort Ticonderoga was surprised and cap- 



THE KEVOLT OF THE COLOXIES — CANADA 



125 



tured by Ethan Allen of Yemiont. When commanded 
to surrender, the sleepy officer of the fort asked in 
much astonishment, " By what authority ? " "In the 
name of the ^reat Jehovah and the Continental Con- 




From the painting by Chappel. 

THE CAPTURE OF FORT TICOXDEROGA. 



gress," was Allen's answer. And thus, resistance 
being futile, the garrison passed into the hands of the 
Americans. Finally, after the commander of the 
English troops saw General Washington's guns look- 
ing down upon him from Dorchester Heights, he got 
into his ships and sailed for Halifax. 

In the meantime a Congress of the colonies had 



126 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

assembled at Philadelphia. At first the Congress 
merely made a formal complaint, but the king's answer 
was to proclaim them rebels, to warn foreign nations 
not to trade with them, and to hire 17,000 troops from 
Hesse and other German states to punish them. When 
the colonies learned what the king had done the Con- 
gress again met, and this time they declared themselves 
free, and no longer subject to England. 

Long before this, New York had been active. While 
the fighting Avas going on in Massachusetts, Philip 
Schuyler, with Richard Montgomery,* had gathered a 
body of troops and was on his way through Lake 
Champlain Valley to Canada. Traveling by another 
route, Benedict Arnold joined him. Montgomery 
captured Montreal and then started for Quebec. He 
and Arnold made a fierce attack and entered the forti- 
fied part of the city. In the assault, Montgomery was 
killed and Arnold was badly wounded. A few months 
later the troops that had made such a gallant fight 
were driven from Canada. 

Montgomery's loss was a sad blow, for he had shown 
himself a splendid soldier. In this campaign he won 
the praise of Frederick the Great. The rapid, forced 
march of Arnold with 1,200 men through the untrod- 

* Montgomery was a young Irishman who had married a daughter 
of Robert Livingston, and had made New York his home. On account 
of Schuyler's illness, Montgomery took command. 



THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR IN NEW YORK 127 

den forests of Maine was also a wonderful feat. Dur- 
ing the whole war there was not a finer piece of 
military work than the campaign against Canada. 



XXIII. THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR FOR 
INDEPENDENCE IN NEW YORK 

After General Howe's army had left Boston, all felt 
quite sure that in time he would attack New York City. 
So, during the spring, Washington took as many of 
the troops as could be spared, about eight thousand, 
and made that city his headquarters. Although he 
had but very few soldiers, he found that with them he 
must defend Manhattan Island, Governors Island, 
Paulus Hook (now Jersey City), and Brooklyn Heights. 
He could not safely try to hold Staten Island, or even 
to guard it. 

When General Howe returned from Halifax in June 
he had more than three times as man}^ troops as Wash- 
ington ; these he landed at Staten Island. Washington 
could not even make an effort to prevent it. What was 
still worse, the Congress had not made any provision 
for more troops ; it could ask the colonies for soldiers, 
but it could not compel any one of the colonies to furnish 
a single man. It was consequently necessary to wait 
with patience until men were enlisted and sent to camp. 



128 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 



All told Washington could not expect to have more 

than 18,000 men, against 25,000 under General Howe. 

Moreover a great many 

wealthy families — 

Tories, they were called 

— remained loyal to the 

king, and these, of 

course, were quite Avilling 

to thwart Washington 

in every way possible. 

General 
Washington, 
therefore, fol- 
lowed a very 
wise plan; he 
began to re- 
treat, and he 




THE CAMPAIGNS ABOUT NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY. 

did but little else the rest of the year. He started up 
the Hudson with British troops after him, showing 
fight whenever the odds were not too much against 



THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR IN NEW YORK 129 

him. At Fort Washiogton, at Harlem Heights, and 
at White Plains considerable skirmishing and fighting 
took place. Across the Hudson to Elizabethtown, to 
New Brunswick, and Trenton, and then across the 
Delaware into Pennsylvania they went. Washington 
gained nothing but experience and discipline for his 
soldiers, but the British lost much ; indeed, they were 
losing all the time. 

On Christmas night in a heavy snow storm, Wash- 
ington crossed the Delaware, made a dash on Trenton, 
captured one thousand Hessian soldiers, and got back 
into Pennsylvania with them. Lord Cornwallis, who 
had all this time been chasing the substance and catch- 
ing the shadow, again tried to get AVashington's army. 
Near Princeton Cornwallis apparently had him penned, 
and Avent to bed in high glee, remarking that " the old 
fox had been run down and would be bagged on the 
morrow." 

But when morning came, the " old fox " was gone! 
He left his camp fires burning brightly, while a few 
men made a considerable pretense of throwing up earth- 
works. While they were at work, however, Wash- 
ington moved quickly and quietly away. At dawn, a 
part of his command met three regiments of British 
troops, and in twenty minutes had thrashed all the 
fight out of them, capturing three hundred men and 
several cannon. The heights about Morristown seemed 



130 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

to be a pretty good place for encampment, and Wash- 
ington prepared to spend the rest of the winter there. 
Incidentally, the British generals had begun to be 
afraid of him, and the military men of Europe said 
that he was a great genius. Washington did not say 
much himself, but he did some thinking, for in a few 






M^m 



FRAUNC'ES S TAVEKN IN NEW YORK CITY. 

In the famous long hall of this tavern, Washington took farewell of his soldiers. 

weeks he had captured two thousand more prisoners, 
and had opened a way up the Hudson. 

By this time both the king and General Howe ^ had 
discovered that every victory was a defeat and so they 
concluded not to "punish" the colonies any more; 
they thought it would be better to '^ conciliate " them. 

* General Howe at heart was very friendly to the Americans and 
did all that he could to prevent the rupture between the colonists 
and the mother country. He was loyal to the king, of course, but at 
the same time he was greatly respected by Washington. 



THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR IN NEW YORK 131 

The "conciliation," however, was managed in such 
a bungling way that it made everybody angrier than 
before. General Howe wrote a letter, intended to be 
an olive branch, saying that every one who would (juit 
rebelling and help to restore peace should have full 
pardon. Mr. John Fiske calls this letter a '* freak of 
political botany"; the method of sending it was still 
more freakish. 

General Howe would not send the letter to the Con- 
gress, because that would be admitting that the colonies 
had a government. Yet the Congress was the only 
body that had the right to receive such a letter, and 
the members would have been angry at being snubbed, 
had not the whole thing been so ridiculous. The letter 
was therefore addressed, " George Washington, Esq." 
As Washington was Commander-in-Chief of the army, 
he very properl}^ refused to receive it. 

A few days later General Howe sent Colonel Patter- 
son with another letter having the address — ''George 
Washington , Esq. , etc. , etc. ' ' Washington refused the 
letter, but did not refuse to see the envoy, Avho was 
anxious to tell the Commander-in-Chief that the 
''etc., etc." meant ''everything." Washington re- 
plied that it might mean anything. Washington's 
courtesy and. commanding appearance greatly im- 
pressed the British officer, and the latter went away 
much wiser than when he came. 



182 



THE MAKIIn^G of the EMPIRE STATE 



General Howe then sent the king's olfer in letters to 
the royal governors, but as these officers were either in 
the colonial jails or aboard British ships, the letters 
had no effect except to be received Avith jeers, and to 
bring to the cause of the colonies many who had been 

wavering. The truth of 
the matter was that the 
king's offer had nothing 
in it ; so the business of 
''punishing the rebel- 
lious colonists " was once 
more taken up. 

Washington was not 
idle during this summer 
of 1776. He was un- 
able to drive the British 
away from I^ew York 
Bay, but he thought he 
could cut off the water 
supply, and in that way 
prevent General Howe 
from occupying the city. In order to do this he 
crossed over to Brooklyn and fortified himself on 
the Heights, just as he had done at Dorchester. 
General Howe tried to crush him by an attack on 
front and rear at the same time. In this fight, 
known as the battle of Long Island, the Continental 



./^W^. 



THE WASHINGTON ARCH, NEW 
YORK CITY. 

Erected in commemoration of the one 
hundredth anniversary of Washington's 
inan!2;u ration. 



THE WAR IN- NEW YORK— THE KIXG^S PLAN 133 

army was worsted, but not driven away from the 
Heights. 

Washington saw that he could not hold the place. 
General Ilowe also learned as much, but not dariuL^ 
to make an open attack — for he remembered Bunker 
Hill too well — he planned to surprise the Continental 
army. And it certainly was a surprise ! — for when he 
moved his troops with the utmost caution and secrecy 
to the American camp he found it deserted. Under 
the cover of a heavy fog AYashington's troops had 
slipped into ^ew York City. Washington knew that 
he could not hold the city, and, indeed, almost as 
soon as his troops were there. General Howe was 
landing his soldiers at a place near the foot of what 
is now Thirty-fourth Street. 



XXIV. THE WAR IN NEW YORK— THE KING'S 
PLAN WHICH WAS NOT CARRIED OUT 

The taking of New York City was a part of a plan 
that certainly was an excellent one had it been car- 
ried out. But quite frequently '' if's " get in the way, 
and in this case there were so many ''if's" that the 
plan failed most miserably. 

After the British troops had been driven out of New 
England, the king and his chief counselor. Lord North, 



134 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

reasoned this Avay: The New England colonies were 
all bad, for the king had no friends there. The south- 
ern colonies were about as bad, and the king had no 
friends there, either. But J^ew York was between 
the two, and the king had many friends in that colony. 
Moreover, if I^ew York could be held, the northern 
and the southern colonies would be kept separate so 
they could not assist each other, and it would be an 
easy matter to whip them into submission. 

The plan was as follows : After i^ew York City had 
been captured, General Howe should go up the Hud- 
son and clear all the rebels out of that region; Gen- 
eral Burgoyne was to come southward from Canada 
and drive the rebels out of the Champlain and upper 
Hudson valleys, while Colonel St. Leger should land 
at Oswego and march through the Mohawk Yalle3^ 
There was only one trouble with this most excellent 
plan. A lot of sturdy fellows who had helped to make 
New York were not inclined to see it carried out. Let 
us follow Bargoyne's fortunes. 

When General Burgoyne got his orders he assembled 
his army, eight thousand strong, and started south- 
ward, and on the second anniversary of the battle of 
Bunker Hill reached Crown Point. A few days later 
he was on his way to Fort Ticonderoga, which Avas 
held by the Continental troops under General St. Clair. 
But St. Clair was not wide awake. He let the British 



THE WAR IN NEW YORK — THE KING's PLAN 135 

seize a hill that he himself should have fortified, and 
the story of Dorchester Heights this time was at the 
expense of the Continental troops.^ St. Clair had to 
get away without a chance to fight, and he was for- 
tunate in getting away at all. General Burgoyne did 
not wait long at Fort Ticonderoga, but pushed on to 
Whitehall, at the head of 
Lake Champlain. 

It was only twenty miles 
to the place where General 
Schuyler had a few hundred 
men; but Schuyler, after de- 
stroying all the roads and 
bridges, likewise got away. 
Burgoyne advanced his army 
pretty rapidly, however, be- 

, 11-^ GENERAL BURGOYNE. 

cause he was lookmg for re- 
cruits to come to his army. He sent an officer with 
about one thousand men to destroy some military 
stores at Bennington, Vermont. There General Stark 
met them, and when he was done with them more than 
two hundred were dead and seven hundred captured. 
Stark lost fourteen men, killed. 
No recruits were coming in to join Burgoyne's army 

* It was quite as much the fault of General Gates as that ^f St. 
Clair. Gates had been ordered to fortify the liill, since called Mount 
Defiance, and failed to do so. St. ("lair had been in command only 
three weeks. 




136 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

except a few hundred Indians, and he found his condi- 
tion growing worse day by day. Instead of being 
among friends of the king, he was surrounded on all 
sides by an enemy that seemed never to sleep. More- 
over, on leaving Canada he had cut himself off from 
the supplies necessary for his troops. 

His orders were to go on to Albany and he tried, 
like the good soldier he was, to obey them. So he 
moved to the Hudson opposite Bemis Heights, and 
crossed the river by a bridge laid on boats. Then 
Benedict Arnold and Colonel Morgan (Sept. 19, 1777) 
fell upon his disheartened troops and checked their 
march southward. In less than three weeks Arnold 
and Morgan struck even a harder blow at Stillwater. 
Arnold was badly wounded, but kept his men hot at 
work. By this time Burgoyne was in sore distress. 
He believed that disaster had fallen upon General Howe 
and Colonel St. Leger, and so he retreated to Saratoga. 
There he found himself without food and surrounded 
by the Continentals; so (Oct. 17) he surrendered. 

One might think that General Burgoyne's task of 
invading the Hudson Yalley was comparatively easy, 
but let us see: when he had crossed the St. Lawrence 
Kiver and had left Canada, he and his army had cut 
themselves off from all communication with the British 
in Canada. Now, soldiers must have food and am- 
munition, and if they cannot carry enough of these 



THE king's plan 137 

things along, where must they look for them ? Bur- 
goyne's troops could carry but little with them, for 
there were no roads, and the country was covered with 
dense forests. The food-stuffs needed did not grow in 
the forest— and neither did the powder and bullets. 
Sending Burgoyne by this route was a great blunder; 
it would have been vastly easier had he gone by sea to 
New York and ascended the Hudson from that point. 
In many ways Burgoyne^s surrender was the turning 
point of the War of the Revolution. It saved New 
York State; it put an end to the king^s fine plan for 
"punishing his rebellious colonies"; and indirectly it 
gave us the help of France, for the latter seeing the col- 
onies were at last on the winning side was quite ready 
to hit back at her old enemy, England. 



XXV. THE KING'S PLAN-WHAT ST. LEGER TRIED 
TO DO AND WHAT HOWE DIDN'T DO 

General Burgoyne did not get to Albany, as we have 
seen. As for that matter, neither did General Howe 
nor Colonel St. Leger; and so every part of the king's 
plan went awry. Let us now follow St. Leger's efforts. 

About the middle of July, St. Leger landed at Oswego 
with a small body of soUliers, less than one thousand. 
At that place he was joined by Sir John, a son of Sir 



138 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 



William Johnson, and by Colonel John Butler, each 
of whom had raised a company of troops, the Koyal 
Greens and the Tory Eangers. Some MohaAvks under 
Joseph Brant also joined him. All told, St. Leger had 
not quite two thousand troops, and these he marched 
to Fort Stanwix, which he expected to capture without 

a struggle; he also expected 
that the Tories in that part 
of the colony would gather 
about him. 

]N"ow there were certainly 
a great many Tories in this 
part of JN'ew York, but there 
were more people who stood 
for the independence of the 
colonies. Among them was 
Nicholas Herkimer, a veteran 
soldier past sixty years of 
age. Herkimer was of German birth and had seen 
military service both in Germany and in the French 
and Indian War. In the meantime, while St. Leger 
was preparing to take Fort Stanwix, Herkimer was 
gathering a command among the farmers and traders 
of Tryon county. He assembled eight hundred men, 
and there were hve hundred or more already at the 
fort. 

Messengers from General Herkimer had been sent to 




JOSEPH BRANT. 



THE KINGS PLAN 139 

the commander of the fort, Peter Gansevoort, who was 
to lire three guns when Herkimer's message reached 
him. But the messengers were so slow that several hours 
had elapsed beyond the time expected. Herkimer was 
at Oriskany when he sent the message, and the distance 
to Fort Stanwix was about eight miles. The road 
between the two places lay across a swamp. 

But Joseph Brant had discovered Herkimer, and his 
Mohawk warriors at once began to pour a death-dealing 
fire into his lines. While the battle was going on, Sir 
John Johnson's rangers came up and added their fire 
to that of the MohaAvks. For several hours the sol- 
diers fought like demons, and when a heavy thunder- 
shower made their flint-lock rifles useless, they fought 
hand to hand with knife and bayonet. Early in the 
fight brave old Herkimer fell mortally wounded, but 
he propped himself against a tree, lit his pipe and gave 
his orders as though nothing had happened.^ 

According to all the rules of war, Herkimer's com- 
mand was not only ambushed, but badly whipped, 
though not being trained soldiers they did not know 
it. What is still more singular, neither Johnson's 
Tories nor Brant's Mohawks knew it; for just as 
Herkimer's troops were at their mercy, both Johnson 
and Brant turned and fled, leaving Herkimer in pos- 

* He was removed to Oriskany, but died a few days later, his 
time-worn Bible open at his favorite thirty-eighth psalm. 



140 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

session of the road to Fort Stanwix. Then the boom 
of the signal guns from the fort split the air and they 
knew that the message had reached the fort too late. 

But Gansevoort had heard the firing, and when he had 
made sure that Herkimer had been ambushed, he sent 
Colonel Marinus Willet with a body of troops towards 
the sound of the firing. Willet met Johnson's ran- 
gers and thrashed them so soundly that they took no 
further part in the war. Johnson's camp and all its 
stores were captured. 

When Schuyler heard of the battle he decided to 
send relief to the fort, but his generals disapproved. 
Only one of them was willing to go and that one was 
Arnold. But before Arnold had reached Fort Stan- 
wix, runners had brought the news of Burgoyne's sur- 
render and of Arnold's approach. Then the Mohawks 
began to desert, and those who remained got into a 
quarrel with the Tory rangers about some liquor that 
had been found. St. Leger himself was badly fright- 
ened and lost his nerve. He might have held his 
ground, but he did not; he left everything and fled 
to Oswego. And so ended the second part of the 
king's plan. 

But where was General Howe all this time, and 
why did he not carry out his part of the plan to 
go up the Hudson ? The first part of the question is 
easy to answer. Howe went to Philadelphia and 



THE KINGS PLAN 



Ul 



was kept pretty busy in taking and holding it. The 
second part of the question is a harder one, and no 
one Avas able to answer it until within a few years. 
Howe never received the orders to join Avith Burgoyne 
and St. Leger. 

It is now known that the order was written and with 
other papers was to be 
sent to the War OflBce 
in London. The min- 
ister found that it had 
not been accurately 
copied, and therefore 
he would not send it 
at that time. Instead, 
he retained it until he 
should return next day. 
AYhen the ' ' next day ' ' 
came, however, he had 
forgotten all about it 
— and perhaps it was 
Avell for the colonists 
that he did forget it. 
Certainly New York was not the loser thereby. 

So the king's fine plan which began with a blast 
of trumpets and a clang of sabers, ended in the smoke 
of bitter defeat. The king could ''do no wrong," 
but he could make most woeful blunders. ITew York's 




PETER GANSEVOORT, 



'-^^^-^^^^-2-^ 




142 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIEE STATE 

part in the War for Independence was thus gloriously 
ended. A monument stands on the battlefield to the 
memory of Oriskany and brave Herkimer. 



XXVI. CHERRY VALLEY— THE STORY OF A 
MASSACRE 

One of the most beautiful parts of central New York 
is a small valley in the eastern part of Otsego county — 
Cherry Yalley. It is only a few miles east of Ot- 
sego Lake. Cherry Creek, the stream that drains it, 
flows into Susquehanna River about midway between 
Cooperstown and Oneonta. Cherry Yalley was one of 
the first settlements made after the English occupation 
of ISTew York; it was the first in what is now Otsego 
county,* but was then a part of Albany county. 

In 1738 John Lindesay, who had been sheriff of Al- 
bany county, obtained about twenty-eight square 
miles of land in the upper part of the valley, and settled 
there with his family. In a short time he was joined 
by a clergyman named Dunlop and by two or three 

* Just before the war of the Revolution (1773), the western part of 
Albany county was set off as Tryon county, named after the English 
governor. A few years later it was re-named Montgomery county 
after the brave commander who fell at Quebec. It was afterwards 
subdivided into Delaware, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Jefferson, 
Lewis, Montgomery, Oneida, Oswego, Otsego, Schoharie and St. 
Lawrence counties. 



CHERRY VALLEY— THE STORY OF A MASSACRE 143 

other families, among them that of James Campbell,"^ 
—a family widely famous throughout England and 
Scotland in the song ''The Campbells are coming." 
Dominie Dunlop immediately opened a school, which 
was one of the first in the State outside of Manhattan 
Island, albeit the boys recited their Latin and arith- 
metic quite as often in the field or in the Avoods as in 
their teacher's cabin. 

The settlement did not grow very rapidly for the rea- 
son that it was difficult to get the farm products to mar- 
ket, but at the end of thirty years there were upwards 
of one hundred families in and about the valley. Many 
of these were Scotch- Irish, who at that time were com- 
ing to America; but there were also many Dutch and 
Germans who moved there from the Mohawk Yalley. 

The farm-stuffs grown were taken to market by a 
very roundabout route. They were hauled over the 
divide to the nearest branch of the Mohawk and thence 
down the Mohawk to the Hudson. Almost all the 
way they were carried in flat-bottomed boats called 
battoesf — boats such as the French traders, copying 
the Indian birch-bark canoes, had used years before. 
Most of them were made at Schenectady, and the mak- 
ing of such boats was a very important business in that 

* Many of his descendants now live in New York. Some of ihera 
became men of distinction. 

t So named from the French word bateau, a boat. 



144 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 



village. Not infrequently, battoes laden with far^ii 
produce were paddled up the Susquehanna to the head 
of Otsego Lake and then dragged across the portage to 
the nearest stream that would float them to the Mo- 
hawk. So, little by little, the Cherry Yalley settle- 




LADING BATTOES ON THE MOHAWK RIVER. 

ment grew until the War of the Revolution; then its 
fate was a cruel one. 

During the war a great many Tories — that is, people 
who remained loyal to England and therefore were 
unfriendly to the colonists — had settled in and about 
Unadilla Valley. With tliem were several hundred 
Seneca Indians. Some of the Tories had formed a 
body of rangers, commanded by Colonel John Eutler.^ 

* Four men by the name of Biiller were in or near this region at 
that time : Col. John Butler, commander of the Tory rangers ; Col. 
William Butler, a patriot officer ; Capt. Walter Butler, an English 
army officer, and Col. Zebulon Butler, a colonist of Wyoming. 



CHERRY VALLEY— THE STORY OF A MASSACRE 145 



The Indians were led by Chief Joseph Brant; they 
were intended not so much for lighting as for scoutin"- 
and suj)plying food to the English and Tory troops. 
These rangers had driven away the settlers from Ger- 
man Flatts, Edmeston, and Cobus Kill (now Cobleskill), 
and also had threatened 
Cherry Yalley. 

So Colonel William 
Butler, with his regi- 
ment of Continental 
troops and several com- 
panies of riflemen, were 
sent to the ITnadilla to 
settle matters. The 
Tories and Indians 
learned of their approach 
and fled without stop- 
ping to fight; in only a 
few places were they sur- 
prised. Butler quickly 
drove every one out of the valley, and burned both 
the Tory settlements and Indian villages. In this way 
the famous Oghwaga village was destroyed. 

The Tories made no effort to go back to the ITnadilla, 
but the Seneca Indians were furious; their villages 
and all their food supplies had been burned or carried 
away. Just at this time Chief Joseph Brant fell in 




COLONEL MARIXLS WILLETT. 



'^/IWC/ 



146 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 



with a Captain Walter Butler, a son of John Butler, 
an English officer who had been imprisoned as a 
spy and narrowly escaped hanging. Brant was per- 
suaded into an act of revenge against his will. Butler 
got together about six hundred Senecas, some Tory 




1 10)11 Vahiith'^'^ MuhiKil. 

THE RESIDENCE OF COLONEL MARINUS WILLET. 

rangers, and a few English soldiers; he headed straight 
for Cherry Yalley. 

The settlers at Cherry Valley had taken refuge in 
or near the fort built for their defense, but neither they 
nor the handful of troops were aware of danger; the 
coming of the Indians was a complete surprise. There 
seemed to be no guards nor pickets. Colonel Alden 
was killed with a tomahawk while running to the fort. 
Thirty of the people were massacred at once, but sev- 



THE MAN WHO BETRAYED HIS COUNTRY ldl:7 

entj were carried away i)risoners, most of them to die 
of exposure or torture. A few escaped, among them 
the clergyman and teacher, Dunlop. 

A month or two afterward Cok^nel Marinus Willett ^ 
took command of the troops in this part of the colony. 
Willett made short work of the Tories and drove the 
Indians who were engaged in the massacre into the 
Adirondack Mountains. Captain Butler's fate was 
tragic; while fleeing along West Canada Creek he 
Avas overtaken by an Oneida warrior. Butler swam 
his horse across the stream, but the Oneida wounded 
him with a ball from his rifle. The Oneida then 
plunged into the stream, swam across it and overtook 
his prey. Butler fell on the ground and implored 
mercy. The Oneida paused long enough with his up- 
lifted tomahawk to cry in broken English, "Cherry 
Yalley," and then sunk it in the brain of his foe. To 
this day the crossing is called Butler's Ford. 



XXVII. THE MAN WHO BETRAYED HIS COUNTRY 
IN REVENGE. 

Of all the sad events of the Revolutionary War, the 
most heart-sickening was a circumstance that led a 

* Willetts Point, opposite Fort Schuyler, was named after liim. 
He was a brave and capable officer. His descendants are among the 
most esteemed people of the state. 



148 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

most gallant and capable soldier, in a fit of passion, 
to betray his country ; and, still worse, to consign 
to the gibbet an officer who was innocent of any crime 
save that of obeying orders. 

After the battle of Saratoga, in which he Avas se- 
verely wounded. General Benedict Arnold was put in 
command of Philadelphia, which had just been evacu- 
ated by the British. This command was conferred 
on Arnold by General Washington, partly as a 
reward, and partly because Arnold Avas too greatly in- 
jured to take a command in the field. The change, 
however, proved a great mistake. Although a most 
skillful general in handling troops, Arnold did not have 
the training that enabled him to manage tricksters 
and politicians. Pliiladel])hia was not only a hotbed 
of Tories, but it was also the center of influences that 
were hostile to the colonies and the Avar. 

For scheming and unscrupulous men of this sort, 
the bluff and outspoken Arnold was no match. As 
military commander of Philadelphia, a ]mrt of his duty 
Avas to seize and sell the property of those Avho had 
given active aid to the British Avhile the latter held 
the city. But inasmuch as many of the OAvners of the 
l^roperty had strong influence with the goA^ernment 
officers, botli in Pennsylvania and in tlie Congress, 
General Arnold either found his orders set aside, 
or Avas thwarted in his efforts to carry them out. 



THE MAN WHO BETKAYED HIS COUNTRY 149 

In addition to this handicap, his salary for a long 
time was withheld, and he got deeply into debt as a 
consequence. It is not strange, then, that between 
his open and his secret enemies, things went in 
such a wretched way, that Arnold was in very 
ugly temper. Finally he made up his mind to leave 
the army and settle upon farming lands in western 
New York, so he returned to Xew York City to close 
his military affairs. Unfortunately, as soon as he had 
left Philadelphia, he was publicly assailed by the 
council of that city with charges that reflected on his 
integrity ; moreover, the copies of the charges were 
sent to the Congress and to the governors of the 
colonies. He could do but one thing, therefore, and 
that he did; he returned to Philadelphia and demanded 
an immediate trial. 

A committee of the Congress heard the charges, of 
which there were six, and recommended an unquali- 
fied verdict of acquittal. The city council, however, 
claimed to have found new evidence, and asked that 
Arnold be put to another trial. The second commit- 
tee was too cowardly to return a verdict, and referred 
the matter to a court-martial. Arnold all this time 
was demanding an immediate trial, and General Wash- 
ington did all that he could to bring it about ; but the 
city council of Philadelphia prevented its taking place 
for about a year. All this time, too, Arnold's pay was 



150 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 



withheld ; he was galled by his debts and annoyed by 
his creditors. 

When the court-martial finally assembled, it was 
found that four of the charges were trumped-up false- 
hoods. In the case of the other two, it was proved 
that a ship had entered the harbor Avith a pass care- 




Ftvm a rare old print. 

THE CAPTURE OF MAJOR ANDRE. 

lessly made out, and also that public wagons had been 
used to cart away certain property, a part of which 
was privately owned, which was in danger of capture 
by the British. The findings of the court-martial were 
unusual: Arnold was acquitted of all intent to do 
wrong, bat was sentenced to be reprimanded by Gen- 
eral Washington ! Wa.^hington was angry at the mis- 
carriage of justice ; Arnold was furious. He brooded 



THE MAN WHO BETRAYED HIS COUNTRY 151 

for a time over his manifest wrongs ; tiien he asked to 
be transferred to the command of West Point. Wash- 
ington immediately granted his request, for he knew 
that Arnold had been shamefully treated. 

Up to the time that Arnold went to West Point, his 
career had been that of a good, faithful soldier. From 
that time on, it forms a sickening page in history. 
Had he sold himself alone, body and soul, the crime 
would have been against himself only ; but not con- 
tent with the crime against himself, he planned to sell 
his country also to the enemy. Under the guise of an 
assumed name, Arnold wrote* to the British com- 
mander. General Clinton, suggesting the surrender of 
the post of West Point, which was the key to the 
Hudson Valley. A favorable reply was received, and 
the correspondence was kept up during a period of 
several months, through Major Andre, General Clin- 
ton's adjutant-general. 

On the night of September 20, 1780, Andre boarded 
a small British vessel, the Vulture^ and made his way 
up the river towards West Point. A small boat sent 
by Arnold conveyed him ashore at a point near Haver- 
straw, where he met Arnold, and the details of the 
wretched business were arranged. Unfortunately for 
Andre, the Vulture was seen from the batteries on the 

* It is likely that Arnold began the correspondence before leaving 
Philadelphia. 



152 THE MAKING OF THE EMF^IRE STATE 

opposite side of the river. The batteries opened lire 
on the vessel, and the latter was compelled to sail off, 
leaving Andre ashore. 

There was nothing to do but wait till the following 
night, and this Andre did. On the evening of the 
22d he disguised himself and, with the escort of a 
guide furnished by Arnold, crossed the Hudson at 
Kings Ferr}^, starting for White Plains by a road 
that led through Tarry town. The guide left him a lit- 
tle while after crossing the river, and Andre went on 
alone. Just before he reached TarrytoAvn, however, 
he met three men, who covered him Avith their 
muskets and halted him. They stopped him because 
he Avas a stranger. 

Had Andre acted boldly, or had he shoAvn the pass 
that Arnold gave him, he Avould have reached the l>ritish 
lines in safety. But one of his captors, John Paulding, 
AA^ore a Hessian soldier's jacket, and Andre, deceived by 
this fact, declared frankly that he Avas a British officer 
on an important mission. Then he learned to his dis- 
may that his captors Avere Americans. He Avas imme- 
diately searched, and the papers that Avere found in his 
stockings made it apparent that he Avas a spy. He Avas 
at once sent to tlie American outpost at North Castle. 

The commander of this post Avas about to send him 
to Arnold, for the hitter's treason had not then been 
discovered. As a matter of fact, the letter concerning 



THE MAN WHO BETRAYED HIS COUNTRY 



153 



him was sent to Arnold, and to this circumstance 
Arnold owed his life. By it he learned that his 
treason had been discovered. He mounted his horse, 
rode to a barge not 
far away, and per- 
suaded the oarsmen 
to take him to the 
Vulture, a few miles 
down the river. The 
vessel with the name 
of ill omen carried 
him to the British 
lines in Xew York. 
West Point, however, 
Avas saved through 
Andre's mistake. 

The rest of the sad 
story is quickly told. 
Andre was tried, con- 
victed, and hanged as ™e monumexxt to andke at TAina- 

TOWN. 

a spy. It was the 

fate of war. Strong 

efforts were made to exchange Andre for Arnold, but 

neither Washington nor Clinton would listen to such 

a proposition. About forty years afterwai'd (1821) 

Andre's remains were taken from their place of burial 

and placed in Westminster Abbey. 




Marking the Place of his Capture. 



154 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

Arnold remained in the British service until the end 
of the war. British officers refused to serve with him, 
however, and he carried on a bushwhacking campaign 
with irregular troops. In London he was publicly 
snubbed and derided; he finally went to ISlew Bruns- 
wick, where he resided for many ^^ears, shunned and 
hated by all. He died in London in 1801. 

That Arnold was most shamefully and outrageously 
treated by the clique of Philadelphians, and that he 
suffered at the hands of the Congress, no one will deny. 
He had good right to vent his wrath on them, but this 
fact cannot be made to excuse the betrayal of his com- 
rades and his friends. There was one other officer who 
suffered quite as much from the malignity of that same 
corrupt ring, and that was none other than General 
Washington. But Washington did not betray his 
country to get revenge for his grievances. 



XXVIII. LIFE IN NEW YORK CITY AFTER THE 
REVOLUTION 

In the large cities of Europe, many of them more 
than a thousand years old, a period of one hundred 
years does not seem a very long time, and the changes 
that take place are so few that they do not cause very 
much alteration. Indeed, in many cities there are 



LIFE IN NEW YORK CITY 



15/ 



buildings begun more than a hundred years ago that 
are still unfinished. In a young city like New 
York, however, a hundred years makes a wonderful 
difference, and in that time pretty nearly all of New 
York has been rebuilt, while the business part has been 
torn down and rebuilt several times. 




From V(d<; lit bit's Man mil. 

OLD CANAL STREET AND BROADWAY. 

Less than one hundred years ago " up-town " in New 
York City meant the vicinity of Bleecker street. Canal 
street was a sluggish, open sewer, draining the marshes 
near by; the Bowery was the chief business street; 
and cattle pastured along Boston road anywhere above 
the present site of Fourteenth street. There Avere then 
but few buildings along the Hudson, and nearly all the 
ships were tied up at the docks along East River, near 
the Battery. The tea gardens at which the people 



156 



THE MAKING OP THE EMPIEE STATE 



I ^ ^J: 




used to congregate were not far away, and fashionable 
people used to spend their evenings and Sunday after- 
noons sipping tea or drinking liquor. 

l^evertheless, there were many church-goers among 
the people. Governor Stuyvesant gave one hundred 
dollars a year for the support of the church in 

which Dominie 
Megapolensis 
preached, and 
his wife, Judith, 
settled the same 
amount on the 
Dutch R e - 
formed Church, 
which stood 
where Saint 
Mark's Churcli 
now stands. 

Xot long after the English began coming to Xew 
York the parish that is now Trinity was organized, 
and a church has stood on the present site for about 
two hundred and fifty years. Just before. the War 
of the Revolution, more than a hundred armed men 
marched up the aisle of the church and persuaded the 
minister to forego praying for King George. St. 
Paul's, however, was the real Tory church, and was 
considered rather more exclusive and aristocratic than 



CONTOIT's new YORK TEA GARDEN, 1828. 



LIFE IN NEW YORK CITY 157 

Trinity. Washington's inaugural address was de- 
livered frojn this church. 

For many years there was a public market, or 
-^Strand," at the head of AVhitehall Street that once 
had been a parade ground in front of the old fort 
that is now the Battery. In 1T32 a considerable part 
of this ground was leased to John Chambers, Freder- 
ick Philipse and John Koosevelt for a bowling green. 
The annual rental was one peppercorn ! It is still 
Bowling Green, and a great '^skyscraper" now casts 
its shadow npon the spot where the leaden statue of 
King George stood. 

The cow ]mth that once led from the market-place 
to the common pasture has become Pearl Street. In 
Kevolutionary times a tavern stood at the corner of 
Broad and Pearl streets, where eatables (and much 
that was drinkable) were dispensed by one Sam 
Fraunces.''^ The building still exists. Kearby was the 
earthwork of sod, surmounted by a palisade of heavy, 
pointed sticks ; it was then the wall that enclosed the 
parade ground ; it is now Wall Street. 

Even in 1800 there were very few paved streets, and 
it is needless to say there was no street-cleaning depart- 
ment. Every householder and every owner of a vacant 
lot Avas required to keep the street before his property 
well cleaned at least twice a week, and was also re- 

* See page 130. 



158 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

quired to have the sweepings and the rubbish from his 
premises piled up to be carted away. In winter, how- 
ever, the only street cleaners were the hogs that were 
turned loose in the city for that purpose. 

There was no gas and no electricity with which to 
light the streets; in the thickly settled part, oil lamps 
fixed to posts were the only means of lighting. These 
were trimmed and lighted by the night watchmen. 
There was no fire department, but every householder 
was required to keep from one to four fire buckets on 
his premises. At any alarm of fire these were set out 
on the sidewalk and were taken by the first fireman 
who might come along. 

Sunday was rigorously kept in some ways and ridicu- 
lously in others. One could not go fishing on that 
day, but he could go to the tea gardens. He could 
get roaring drunk if he were afoot, but he was for- 
bidden to drive in his carriage on that day during the 
hours of church service, or after nine o'clock in the 
morning; he was not permitted to cross either river 
under any circumstances that day in a carriage, but 
he could go to Gravesend and carouse till Monday. A 
church congregation could require chains to be put 
across the street leading to the church during the 
time of services, and this frequently was done. 

There was a great deal of ''class distinction" in 
those days. The ''upper crust," or "four hundred," 



LIFE IX XEW YORK CITY 159 

included the descendants of the Patroons, the owners 
of large estates and the rich merchants. The artisans, 
small shop-keepers and wage-earners, no matter how 
well-behaved or educated they might be, were con- 
sidered socially inferior and their rights were not al- 
ways respected. 

In a city to which so many were coming, housekeep- 
ing vv^as not always at first convenient or even possible. 
Very aristocratic people had apartments at a man- 
sion on the lower end of Broadway, where they were 
lodged and entertained for the sum of seven dollars 
per week. Elsewhere one might get board for from 
two to four dollars a week. House rent in the dwell- 
ing part of the city was sometimes as high as three 
hundred dollars a year, l)ut rarely more than half 
that sum. 

House leases were usuallv for one year, beginning 
with the first day of May. Consequently it was well- 
nigh impossible to find the means for removal, so many 
wished to move on that day. jS"ot infrequently there 
w^ould be several hundred families without an\' way 
of carrying their household goods. The latter were 
stored in the City Hall Square ; the people themselves 
were lodged in the city jails until they could move 
into their houses. 

Wages varied according to the times. Occasionally, 
after there had been an inflow of people from Europe, 



160 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

men and women were willing to work during the win- 
ter for their keeping. Field labor on the farms was 
rarely paid more than eight or ten dollars a month, be- 
cause of slave labor. In brisk times, carpenters, ma- 
sons, and blacksmiths received about one dollar and 
fifty cents for a day's labor of twelve or more hours. 
Hatters were paid as high as two dollars a day ; sailors 
got twenty-four dollars a month and their keeping, a 
sum greater than many receive at the present time. 
Servants received about eight dollars a month and 
their keeping if they were free, but in the earlier his- 
tory of the colony not many were free. 

There were really three kinds of unskilled labor 
in Kew York, and the conditions were the same in 
most of the southern colonies. There were convicts 
that were quietly put aboard the vessels sailing from 
European ports for New York. They shipped as sail- 
ors, but received no pay except their passage; and it 
was understood that the shipmaster would promptly 
discharge them at the end of the voyage. Each one, 
moreover, got a hint that he would better stay away ; 
and the most of them stayed. There were also many 
poor people, both men and women, who had been kid- 
napped and sold into service. Kidnapping was done 
only at times when there was a very great demand 
for laborers. Both the home and the colonial govern- 
ment permitted it secretly, although it was illegal. 



SLAVERY IX NEW YORK 161 

There was a class of peo])le — men and women and 
children — known as "■ redem|)tioners/' For their j)as- 
sage money they agreed to be sold into service for a 
term of years, varying from one to seven. This ar- 
rangement was lawful and other colonies practised it 
as well. At the end of the term of service, if not in 
debt, the servant received his discharge or "'redemp- 
tion" papers. All told, the lot of the poor man in 
colonial times was not a pleasant one; it is certainly 
far better now, for the law knovrs no distinction be- 
tween the employer and the laborer. IS'owadays there 
is no leisure class; all are lal)orers — except the loafers. 



XXIX. SLAVERY IN NEW YORK AND HOW IT 
CAME TO AN END 

It seems to be a fact that the first African slaves 
brought to the colonies were landed in Virginia in 
1619, and probably the next to follow were brought to 
New Amsterdam in 1625. During the entire colonial 
period, negro slavery was one of the institutions of 
New York as well as of the other colonies. For a 
long time the English government encouraged the 
capture of African negroes to be sold into slavery, 
and the traffic in slaves was a regular business in 
Boston, Salem, Medford, Providence, and other New 



162 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

England towns, as well as in the southern colonies. 

The business was carried on in a roundabout man- 
ner. One fleet of vessels fetched molasses from Ja- 
maica; the molasses was made into rum,* and the 
rum was sent by other vessels, usually slavers, to be 
exchanged for negroes. The negroes were then sold in 
the colonies or perhaps in the West Indies. If the 
voyage was long or stormy, as many as one-third of the 
number perished on account of the horrible treatment 
they received. 

In New York, both before and after it became an 
English colony, the buying and selling of slaves was 
as common as the traffic in grain or furs. Able- 
bodied men and women brought from $150 to $250. 
They were emplo3^ed in about every kind of work, not 
only in the country on the farms and manors, but in 
the cities and towns as well. They Avere the cooks, 
household servants, gardeners, coachmen, drivers and 
all-around laborers. Marketmen employed them to 
peddle fruit and vegetables ; business men used them as 
messengers, and by them people were carried around 
the city in sedan chairs. One hundred years after the 
settlement of ^N'ew York, nearly one-quarter of the 
population was composed of African slaves. 

On the whole the slaves were well treated and they 

* Much of the rum was made at Medford, and the name still 
has a certain commercial use. 



SLAVERY IN NEW YORK 



163 



were far bet- 
ter off than 
in their former 
savage state in 
Africa. In 
very many in- 
stances they 
were allowed 
to buy their 
freedom, and 
not inf re- 




A FIRE ENGINE USED IN 1732. 



quently a slave Avas permitted to go around searching 
for some one to buy him. Now and then, however, a 
slave would run away, and in such a large slave popu- 
lation it is not surprising that there were desperate 




A FIRE ENGINE TTHED IN 1842. 

men and women. There was always more or less fear 
of outbreaks among them, and in New York City they 



164 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIKE STATE 

were forbidden to assemble in cro\Yds of more than 
four. They were not allowed to carry weapons of any 
kind, and after dark a slave could not go about the 
street without a lighted lantern. 

At times there was good cause for these fears. 
Once, in 1712, some negroes set fire to a building in 
an orchard, and the people who came to the fire were 
shot down until nine were killed and many others 
wounded. The punishment inflicted on the murderers 
was even more horrible than the plot; some were 
burned alive, and one poor wretch was torn limb 
from limb; in all twenty or more were put to death. 

About thirty years afterward (1741), there was an- 
other outbreak, not by the negroes, but against them. 
A number of fires had taken place and in consequence 
there was much alarm. By and by the people be- 
came so excited that they seemed to lose their wits. 
Up to this time there was nothing that led to belief 
that the negroes had anything to do with the fires. 
The city council, however, offered a reward of one 
hundred pounas and free pardon to anyone Avho would 
give evidence of a })lot. So a drunken Avoman, Mary 
Burton by name, told the councibnen that a white man, 
Hughson, and a slave owned by Colonel Philipse 
Avere planning to overthrow the government and nuike 
ITuolison kino-. 

The more the Burton woman Avas questioned the 



SLAVERY IN NEW YORK 



165 



more people she accused. Chief among them was a 
school teacher named Urij. In the course of a few days 
about twenty-five white people and more than one 
hundred and fifty negroes were cast into prison. 
Hughson, his wife, another woman, and Urij were 
promptlv hanged. Eighteen negroes were also hanged 




THE OLD JAIL IN NEW YORK CITY. 
Subsequently known as the Hall of Records. 

and fourteen were burned ab've. Then the Burton 
woman began to accuse others who could not possibly 
have had anything to do with a plot, and so the au- 
thorities discovered that they had been duped and that 
there was no plot at all. 

The dreadful affair had one good result: there grew 
up a sentiment in favor of the negroes. Within ten 



166 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

years the rights of citizenship were given to free 
negroes, and shortly afterwards New York became 
foremost among the states that were trying to put a 
stop to the slave-trade. Much if not most of this 
healthful condition was brought about by the Society 
of Friends, or ''Quakers," as they are often called. 
The Methodists were also very active in the abolition 
of human slavery. 

The year 1785 is one that the people of New York 
may be proud of, for in that year an act was passed 
making every child born of slave parents free. In 1817 
another was passed making every slave free who might 
be in the state, July 4, 1827. That was a blessed thing 
lor the few slaves remaining, and it was also a thrice 
blessed thing for New York. 



XXX. HOW QUEENSTON WAS NOT TAKEN— A 
COMIC-OPERA CAMPAIGN 



In 1803, when Napoleon sold to the United States 
the great territory of Louisiana, which comprises 
about one-third of our national domain, he declared 
ver}^ candidly that he was doing so, not so much to help 
the United States as to hurt England. In this trans- 
action Napoleon was wiser than he dreamed, for with 
this vast fertile area the United States was to become 



HOW QUEENSTON WAS NOT TAKEN' 



167 



not only a world power, but the world power. Napo- 
leon also brought about what jn^obably he had hoped 
for, namely — a war between France and England. 

The war, however, got the United States into a 
great deal of trouble, and after about nine years of 
distress we also declared war against England. While 




THE HEIGHTS OF QUK 



the Avar between England and France was in progress, 
the Parliament of the former country forbade our 
vessels carrying any goods whatever between French 
colonies and France, or Spanish colonies and Spain, 
or Dutch colonies and Holland; though we could carry 
produce from our own ports to anyone of these coun- 
tries. So the masters of American vessels took their 



168 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

cargoes to a i)ort of the United States first, and then 
cleared for a foreign country, without even touching 
their cargoes. 

In order to prevent this, the English government 
began to station men-of-war and fast cruisers near the 
various ports of the United States, so as to capture the 
cargoes of the vessels going to foreign ports. Not only 
did the warships seize the cargoes, but they took 
American sailors and forced them into British service 
as sailors. Napoleon also ordered French men-of-war 
to capture any vessel whose master allowed her to be 
searched by a British ship. Then the United States 
refused to allow any of the vessels fiying its flag to 
trade either Avith France or England. By this act we 
succeeded in cutting off our national nose to spite our 
national face. But we got no relief whatever, and in 
1812 we declared war against England. 

At first everything w^ent against us. To oar ever- 
lasting disgrace, General Hull, then a very feeble old 
man, surrendered Detroit to the British without a 
struofD^le. What made the matter still worse, in two 
or three instances the soldiers themselves Avould not 
fight. One such affair happened in New York. 

When the war was begun, Daniel D. Tompkins was 
governor of New York and, like many other gov- 
ernors who have filled the office, he was very desirous 
of having the office a second time. There was a bright 



HOW QUEENSTON WAS NOT TAKEN 



169 




young man, Stephen Van Ee'nsselaer by name, a de- 
scendant of the Patroon Kilian Van Rensselaer, whom 
the people favored for the office, much to the dislike 
of Governor Tomp- 
kins. The latter 
was a shreAvd poli- 
tician, however, and 
when N'ew York 
was called upon to 
furnish troops for 
the war. Governor 
Tompkins made Van 
Rensselaer thei r. 
commander. The 
wily governor knew 
that if Van Rens- 
selaer took the com- 
mand he could not 
very well make a 
canvass for the 
coveted office; if he 
refused the com- 
mand it would cer- 
tainly injure his chances of election. 

But Van Rensselaer was not the kind of man to shirk 
a duty, even though he was imposed upon. He ac- 
cepted the call and at once took command. When 



STEPHEN VAN RENSSELAER. 




170 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

he reached jS'iagara, where his troops had been col- 
lected, he found less than one thousand men without 
arms or uniforms. Many were even without shoes 
and proper clothing. Yan Rensselaer at once set to 
work getting additional men and providing them with 
arms and clothing. He drilled them in all the duties re- 
quired of soldiers and, still better, used his own money 
for their long overdue pay. 

With the coming of fall General Yan Rensselaer 
had his troops in fair condition, and when they saw 
the American soldiers captured at Detroit, as pris- 
oners, only a stone's throw across Niagara River, 
they clamored to be led into battle. Just at that time, 
however, about 1,700 soldiers of the regular army un- 
der General Smyth came to the camp at Lewiston. 
When Smyth had looked over Yan Rensselaer's plans, 
and found that the latter intended to cross the river 
to Queenston, he said that Buffalo was a better place 
in which to stay, and taking his troops, he left Yan 
Rensselaer to fight the battle alone. 

Yan Rensselaer went on with his preparations, and 
early on the morning of the 11th of October, the first 
boat-load of troops pushed across the river. But as 
some one had treacherously hidden the oars of the 
other boats, this one was compelled to return. The 
next morning before daybreak three hundred men 
crossed and drove the British from the river front 



HOW QUEENSTON WAS NOT TAKEN 



171 



into Queenston. In this part of the battle Yan Rens- 
selaer was wounded four times before he would give 
up the command. 

In order to take Queenston, more troops were 
needed, but when the men on the American side of the 
river saw the dead and 
wounded bodies of their 
comrades brought back, 
all the spirit of fight oozed 
out of them. In vain did 
their officers tr}^ to force 
them into the boats, and 
in vain did the wounded 
Van Rensselaer implore 
them; they skulked along 
the shore and not a man 
of them would cross. In 
the meantime the British 
rallied, and forcing the 

New York militia back to the river bank captured the 
greater number. Among the prisoners were two men 
who afterwards became famous, Winfield Scott and 
John E. Wool. In the meantime, too, General Smyth 
came up with his regulars, but he refused to help the 
plucky men who had done the fighting. 

So, in disgust, as well as in bodily distress from his 
wounds, Yan Rensselaer threw up his command and 




JOHN E. W (K)L. 



172 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

returned home to recover. The conceited Sm3^th then 
took command. He issued a very bombastic procla- 
mation partly deriding Van Rensselaer and partly 
boasting what a regular army officer could do. Then 
he sat down and waited. He waited until his own 
soldiers began to berate him, but finally he gave the 
orders to cross the river. Several boat-loads actually 
crossed on the following morning, but while some of 
the men were spiking the cannon, those in charge of 
the boats got frightened and returned, leaving their 
comrades to be captured. 

The troops who were waiting under arms begged 
Smyth to lead them across so that they might recap- 
ture their fellow-soldiers, but Smyth said that it would 
not be prudent at that time. In ugly mood, there- 
fore, the men returned to their quarters, Smyth hav- 
ing promised that an attack should be made on the 
morrow. When morning came, the boats and men 
were ready, but just as they were starting, a bugle 
signal was sounded from the British camp. There- 
upon Smyth ordered the attack given up. 

By this time the troops had become so angry that 
Smyth was jeered and taunted whenever he appeared 
in sight. One soldier told him that had some one 
spiked the bugle instead of the cannon they might have 
taken Queenston. Another order for crossing the 
river was given, and when the troops had been drawn 



HOW QUEENSTON WAS NOT TAKEN 173 

up in readiness, Smyth's heart again failed and the 
troops were a third time sent back. By this time 
Smyth was in danger of being lynched by his regular 
army troops, and he camped with some of the despised 
militia for protection. One oificer tried to shoot hhn, 
and in Buffalo a militiaman fired at him on the street. 

By this time, too, all the troops were in a muti- 
nous condition. Many of the regular soldiers deserted; 
some of the militia, in despair, broke their inuskets 
and went home. Smyth issued another proclama- 
tion — a tirade in which he tried to blame the soldiers 
for his own cowardice — and then in disgrace he aban- 
doned his command and returned to Virginia. And so 
ended the campaign in Xew York. Smyth blamed the 
soldiers for all his troubles, and called them a lot of 
cowardly whelps. 

Certain it is that they had acted in a cowardly 
manner, but for this he alone was to blame. The 
troops needed training, but more than anything else 
they needed a good soldierly leader. With a good 
leader almost any sort of men will become soldiers; 
without a leader the best troops are of little worth. 
And that is a lesson we have had to learn in every 
war we have had. 



174 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 



XXXI. LIEUTENANT McDONOUGH AND THE BAT- 
TLE OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN 

In 1813, just after the reverses that began when 
General Hull surrendered Detroit, the flag of the 
United States disappeared from Lake Erie. Presi- 
dent Madison was urged to defend the frontier along 
the lakes and so he sent a shipbuilder and some house 
carpenters to build a sloop or two. Then he did a very 
wdse thing; he put the whole matter in the hands of 
a young man named Perry. 

That Perry was a most able man became at once 
apparent. Out of growing timber, in less than nine 
months, he built a fleet of nine small vessels, armed 
and manned them, ran down the British fleet and 
captured it. He sent the famous despatch " We have 
met the enemy and he is ours — two ships, two brigs, 
one schooner, and one sloop." 

This victory opened the way to another invasion of 
Canada. Along the New York frontier the troops un- 
der General Dearborn crossed Lake Ontario and cap- 
tured the town of York; to their shame and disgrace 
they also burnt it. The British made an attack upon 
Sacketts Harbor, but were driven off. An expedition 
was sent to take Montreal, but the leaders were too 
badly frightened to get there. There was much fight- 



THE BATTLE OF LAKE CIIAMPLAIN 



175 



ing around Xiagara, in which Win field Scott took 
part. The British finally crossed the river and burned 
Buffalo. The campaigns on land, however, were more 
than offset by the work of the navy, and to the latter 
the country owed the successful result of the war. 
As in the French and Indian, and the Revolutionai'v 




F^'om the paiiitirig in me Xatloucd Vupitol. 

PERRY TRANSFERRING HIS FLAG AT THE BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE. 

war, there was a considerable amount of fighting and 
skirmishing along the boundary between Canada and 
I^ew York. During the years of 1812-1813, troops 
had been concentrating about Lake Champlain, and in 
1814, eleven thousand of the best troops of England 
were waitino^ at the lower end of the lake for a con- 
venient time to invade the lower lake and Hudson val- 



176 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

leys. At that time the troops, it is said, were living on 
meat and other provisions smuggled across the border 
from 'New York and Yermont, all of which were sold 
to them by the people of those states. The British, 
too, had built a fleet of vessels to convey the army to 
the head of the lake. 

Against this force there were about fifteen hundred 
men at Plattsburg. So the British General Prevost 
gradually brought his army to Plattsburg intending to 
take the town at his leisure — then he stopped and 
waited. He discovered something that disturbed him, 
and that something was a fleet of four small ships and 
ten gunboats. 

All these months, while the British troopers had 
been growing stout on Yermont beef and New York 
bread and potatoes, a young lieutenant, Thomas 
McDonough by name, had been building some vessels 
which a member of the Parliament had called "" those 
fir-built things." Prevost well knew that if he at- 
tacked the forts at Plattsburg, McDonough would 
turn the guns of the ships upon his troops, which 
would then be between two fires; so he waited until 
the British fleet came. 

A few days later the fleet rounded Cumberland 
Head, the eastern shore of the bay in which Plattsburg 
is situated. There were tw^elve gunboats and four 
large ships, one of which, the Confance, her captain 



THE BATTLE OF LAKE CIIAMPLAIN 



177 



said, could sink the whole of McDonoiigh's fleet. The 
Confiance made at once for the Saratofja, McDon- 
ough^s flagship. The first broadside killed and wounded 
forty men. The next cut down one of the ship's masts, 
at the same time killing the chief gunner. The head 




From the painting by Cluqipel. 

Mcdonough's victory on lake champlain. 

of the unfortunate man struck McDonough such a 
hard blow that he fell to the deck stunned and sense- 
less. In a few minutes he had recovered, however, and 
was ready for action. 

He manned one of the guns himself, and for fif- 
teen minutes was his own chief gunner. By that time 



178 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

the last gun on that side of the ship was disabled ; then 
he wore the ship about and used the guns on the other 
side, with such effect that the Conjiance^ after her 
masts had been torn away and one hundred and five 
shots had pierced her, surrendered. McDonough was 
then in o^ood fiohtino: mood and turned to the next 
largest ship, the Linnet. In twenty minutes her flag 
came down. The F'mch, another British ship, was dis- 
abled and captured after she had drifted ashore. The 
Chiibh^ next to the Confiance 1\\q largest of the fleet, 
was disabled by the Eagle, and surrendered after a shot 
from the Saratoga had made her helpless. Finally the 
surviving ships of the British fleet turned about and 
moved off. 

McDonough 's ships were all badly injured, the masts 
and rigging of most of them being shot into splinters. 
To follow the retreating British was therefore out of 
the question. 

On land there was but little fighting. General Pre- 
vost did not even make an attack on the forts. The 
defeat of the fleet, on which they so much depended, 
put an end to all his plans for invading the state. 
McDonough was promoted ; he received a medal from 
the Congress for his gallant fight; he received also a 
grant of ten thousand acres of land overlooking Cum- 
berland Bay. 



THE ERIE CANAL 179 

XXXII. THE ERIE CANAL 

A big farm of level, fertile land is an excellent 
thing if one can find a market for the crops. But if 
a farmer cannot sell the crops that he grows, a large 
farm is no better than a small one, and not so very 
much better than none at all. 

'Now this was the condition in which many New 
York farmers found themselves when peace had 
come upon the land. There were farmers in the 
western part of the state who had the very best land 
in the country for wheat growing. Moreover, it cost 
less than forty cents a bushel to grow the wheat, 
Avhich fetched one dollar and fifty cents a bushel at 
New York City. There w^as only one drawback to the 
business. The farmer got only fifty cents a bushel 
for his wheat and sometimes only forty cents; all the 
rest he must pay to have the wheat hauled to market. 

The merchants were just as badly off as the farm- 
ers. The goods for the western part of the state 
were sent to Albany by steamboat or perhaps by slow 
sailing vessels; thence they were hauled overland to 
the Mohawk River at Schenectady. There they were 
loaded into Schenectady boats or battoes, dragged u\) 
the Mohaw^k Eiver, and thence through a canal that 
connected Little Falls and Utica. 



180 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIEE STATE 



At Utica the merchandise was again hauled over- 
land to Kome; thence battoes carried it along a shal- 
low canal to Wood Creek ; then it was floated down the 
creek through Oneida Lake, and down Seneca and Os- 
wego rivers to Lake Ontario. At Oswego sailing vessels 
took the goods to the head of the lake, and if the 
goods were for Pittsburg they must be again hauled 
overland to the Allegheny River. 




i 







%M.^_ 



\\ -'I'i 



'7.' -r:/y'' 



THE CANAL IN OLD BROAD STREET, NEW YORK CITY 



Now all this was not only very trying, it was very 
expensive. In these days one gives a package of mer- 
chandise to the express company in New York at six 
o'clock in the afternoon, and it is delivered in Buffalo 
by nine the next morning. But at that time it re- 
quired at least ten days for shipment and delivery. 

In the early part of the century just ended, no one 



THE ERIE CANAL 181 

thought seriously about a railway; indeed but few 
people had ever heard of one. Every one knew about 
canals, however, for as early as 1812 there were sev- 
eral very short ones. Just after the close of the War of 
the Revolution there was a company formed for the 
making of a canal between Albany and Lake Ontario, 
but the plan was thought a trifle crazy and nothing 
came of it. 

In the course of a few years it was proposed to 
build a caual from Albany to Buffalo! — and no one 
thought the idea crazy at all. The reason was not 
hard to find; the people of Pennsylvania had waked 
up to the fact that the trade of the rapidly grow- 
ing West was worth a great deal, and they were ask- 
ing the Congress to build canals that should con- 
nect Chesapeake, or else Delaware, Bay with the 
Ohio River* in order to get that trade, ^ew York 
was greatly afraid of losing her share of this trade, 
and her leading men were also asking the Congress for 
help in making the canal between Albany and Lake 
Erie. Indeed, one historian has said: "Of all beg- 
gars, the sturdiest and most unblushing was the State 
of New York." But New York got not one cent! 
The Congress was willing, but the President was not, 

* Canals and portages were actually built for this purpose, but 
they were temporary affairs, and were not long in use. Tlie Chesa- 
peake and Ohio Canal, by way of the Potomac River through Cumber- 
land Gap, was never completed. 



182 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIKE STATE 



and he vetoed the bill which was to give both New 
York and Pennsylvania aid. This was in 1815. 

Four months after the refusal, the first shovelful of 
earth was turned at lionie, and work on the Erie Canal 
w^as pushed as hard as men and money could make it go. 
When the President refused to give the aid of the gov- 







<i\ 


^ 


1 ' 

1 


ui ■ 







THE WESTERN END OF THE ERIE CANAL. 



ernment, the business men of New York said nothing 
but went to work. De Witt Clinton and Stephen 
Yan Rensselaer got the help of the legislature in 
April; and before the summer was over, the route of 
the canal w^as surveyed and staked out. Not only 
was a canal to join Lake Erie and the Hudson River, 
but another was begun between the Hudson River 
and Lake Champlain. 

In June, 1825, water was let into the Avestern divi- 



THE ERIE CANAL 



183 



sion, and in October the canal was opened from end 
to end. A procession of boats headed by the Seneca 
Chief left Buffalo on the t\venty-sixth of the month. 
All the way it was saluted by the roar of cannon, th6 
fire of musketry, and the sounds of music. When the 




From an old print. 

FIREWORKS CELEBRATING THE OPENING OF THE ERIE CANAL. 

Exhibited on City Hall, New York, on the Evening of November 4, 1825. 

fleet of boats reached New York, Governor Clinton, 
lifting two kegs filled with water dipped out of Lake 
Erie, poured their contents into Xew York Bay. 

The cost of tlie canal at that time was about nine 
millions of dolhirs, and almost from the first the tolls, 
or money received for traffic, amounted to more than 
the interest on the sum spent. There was another im- 



184 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIKE STATE 

portant matter: the farmer in western New York paid 
forty cents instead of a dollar and ten cents for getting 
a bushel of wheat to market, and he put the difference 
into his pocket. 

There was also another result. The ships that 
before the making of the canal had been plying be- 
tween European ports and America used generally to 
go to Philadelphia. After that they began going to 
New York City. A reason is not hard to find. They 
could rarely get return cargoes at Philadelphia; they 
could always find something to take back from New 
York, and usually that something was wheat or other 
produce carried to New York City by the Erie Canal. 
Owing to this fact, more than any other, New York 
City became the metropolis of the Western Continent. 



XXXIII. ROBERT FULTON AND THE 
STEAMBOAT 

In these days when monster steamships, each carry- 
ing at times as many as two thousand people, leave 
New York at the rate of two or three a day and speed 
across the ocean half as swiftly as the fastest express 
train moves, it does not seem possible that only a cen- 
tury ago the idea of a steamboat was hooted. Almost 
always, too, it is said that Kobert Fulton invented the 



ROBERT FULTON AND THE STEAMBOAT 185 

steamboat, but this is not true. Robert Fulton and 
Robert R. Livingston put the first successful paying 
line into existence, but steamboats had been built more 
than twenty years before that time. About 1785, 
John Rumsey, of Maryland, built a steamboat which 
was used on the Potomac River. The experiment 
failed, not because the boat would not go, but be- 
cause the "Rumsey Society " could not raise the money 
necessary to operate the line. 

In 1788 John Fitch, of Philadelphia, built a steam 
packet that made regular trips on the Delaware 
River for two years, V)ut this also failed because the 
people had so little confidence in it. Just about this 
time John C. Stevens of Hoboken, New Jersey, built 
the Plumiix, to ply between New York and New 
Brunswick. The boat paid at the first, but there 
was an obstacle in the way; in 1798 the State of New 
York had granted to Livingston the exclusive right to 
navigate the waters of New York by steam. So Ful- 
ton prevented Stevens's boat from landing at any place 
in New York, and the Phmiix was therefore sent by 
sea around the peninsula to Delaware Bay. There it 
made trips for a while between Philadelphia and Bor- 
den town, meeting a coach that connected at New 
Brunswick with a steamboat from New York. The 
line failed because Fulton's company got the profits. 

Robert Fulton was born in Pennsylvania in 1765, 



186 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 



He sjDent his boyhood in Lancaster, but when he was 
about twenty years old, he moved to Philadelphia, 
where he not only supported himself by painting minia- 
tures and drawing plans of machinery, but in a short 
time he had saved enough to take him to Europe. He 
studied in London and Paris. While in Paris he be- 




THE iLEUMoM OX ilKll TliiAL I'Jill' IN 1807. 



came interested in torpedoes, such as are now used 
in naval warfare, and was forced to the conclusion 
that, to be successful, they must be launched or fired 
from a vessel propelled by steam. Fulton had suc- 
ceeded in getting Napoleon interested in the mat- 
ter, but nothing came of his plans because the French 
Institute, a society of engineers, held them back for 
more than three years. 



ROBERT FULTON AND THE STEAMBOAT 



187 



About this time Livingston was sent to France as 
United States Minister. Livingston had investigated 
steam navigation and, some time before Stevens's 
boat was in operation, had himself built a steamboat 
on Hudson Kiver. Moreover, he had persuaded the 
state to give him the 
exclusive right to navi- 
gate its waters by steam, 
provided he should pro- 
duce a boat that would 
make not less than four 
miles an hour against 
current and tide. The 
boat failed to do this, 
and so Livingston went 
to France; not, how- 
ever, without getting an 
extension of time for his 

rights of navigation. /^f // /^l^/77 ^^ /^. 

It is hardly necessary / 

to say that Fulton at once made himself acquainted 
with Livingston, and they formed a partnership. Ful- 
ton went to Scotland to see a steamboat that was in 
operation there, and then returned to Paris, where he 
and Livingston made some experiments on the Seine. 
They ordered an engine built in Birmingham, England, 
and in about two years both returned to the United 




ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON. 




188 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

States. In 1806 they built the Clermont '^' on East 
River. In shape it was much like the old side-wheel 
ocean steamers; it was one hundred and thirty feet 
long and eighteen feet wide. The paddle-wheels were 
fifteen feet in diameter. 

On August 7, 1807, the Clermont began her trial 
trip to Albany. The crowd hooted and jeered as 
the boat started, and a few minutes afterward, when 
the engineer stopped a moment to fix the machinery, 
they greeted it with a shower of stones. The boat was 
quickl}^ put in motion again, and in thirty-two hours 
had reached Albany, a distance of one hundred and 
fifty miles. The Clermont had earned the sole right 
for her owners to the steam navigation of the river 
and lake ports of New York. On September 4th, the 
Clermont began her regular trips to Albany. The 
fare to Albany was seven dollars — just twice the 
amount now charged for the round trip on one of the 
magnificent Hudson River steamers. 



XXXIV. HOW THE HELDERBERGERS DECLARED 
WAR— THE STORY OF THE ANTI-RENT RIOTS 

Whenever one buys property of any kind, it is 
supposed that he has a right to keep it, use it, and 

* It was named after Livingston's home, at Livingston Manor. 



HOW THE HELDERBERGERS DECLARED WAR 189 

enjoy it. The right to have and to hold it, or even 
to sell it, is one's title. About most of the things one 
has, such as clothing or food, the title is rarely ques- 
tioned. Sometimes a man is required to prove that 
he has a good title to such things as cattle, furni- 
ture, or jewelry, and if he is careful, he will demand 
a hill of sale to show that his title is good. 

If one buys land, however, it is necessary to use great 
care. One must find whether or not each person 
through whose hands the land has passed has had a good, 
clear title to the land, or whether the reputed owner 
had the right to sell. Moreover, the purchaser must 
have a bill of sale for the property, and this is known 
as a deed. It is unfortunate that in a new country, 
people are usually ver}^ careless about titles and deeds. 
They are apt to make mistakes, and the mistakes may 
not be discovered for many years; so it has frequently 
happened that, because of some defect or other in a 
title, a man finds too late that he is not the owner 
of the land he has paid for. Because of a great num- 
ber of cases of this sort, from 1843 to 1848, there was 
no end of trouble in a part of Kew York. 

In another chapter it has been described hovf the Pa- 
troons got the great farms called " manors " from the 
West India Company. Some of the manors were di- 
vided into small farms with no doubt as to the 
question of title, but in the case of two, the Kensse- 



190 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

laer and the Livingston Manor, there was much fric- 
tion and not a little bloodshed. When these manors 
were divided into small farms to be sold, the pur- 
chaser got a lawful deed to his land, but instead of 
paying a fixed sum for it he gave a small yearly rent 
to be paid in produce. 

Thus it happened that, in time, the rent became of 
little consequence, and so the landlords did not think 
it worth the trouble to collect it; in some instances it 
was for a long time forgotten. When, however, 
Steven Yan Rensselaer died, in 1839, his heirs dis- 





SPECIMENS OF EARLY COPPER CURRENCY IN \i > i Klv STATE. 
The Keverse Shows the Crest of the State Aims. 

covered that there were many years' back rent due, 
and when they began to take steps to collect it, the 
proprietor of Livingston Manor endeavored also to 
collect the long unpaid rent due him. 

Now had there been only a small area of land in 
dispute, probably there would have been no war of 
the Ilelderbergers (so called from the Helderberg 



HOW THE HELDERBERGERS DECLARED WAR 191 

hills west of Albany). But in this case almost 
all of Greene, Delaware, Albany, Rensselaer, and 
Columbia counties were involved. The trouble be- 
gan when the owners of the land refused to pay rent. 

When the owner of the manor could not cajole or 
frighten a farmer into paying the rent he would send 
the sheriff to emct or force him to leave the property. 
This succeeded in a few instances. Then the farmers 
began the plan of disguising themselves as Indians, 
and when a sheriff's officer came around to evict an 
owner he was apt to get a very hot reception. And 
so matters went on very badly for several years. In 
Columbia county one Dr. Boughton, disguised as a 
chief, ''Big Thunder," shot and wounded a deputy 
sheriff, for doing which he was sent to prison. In 
another county a deputy sheriff was set upon and 
murdered in open daylight. 

Governor Wright then ordered out the militia, and 
sent companies of soldiers into Schoharie and Delaware 
counties. But even this did not help matters any, for 
the farmers accomplished by cunning what they could 
not by force. They organized a political party called 
the ^'Anti-Renters," and that brought the question to a 
political issue. The Anti-Renters numbered about five 
thousand voters, and each political party was badly in 
need of just about that number of votes. 

Then Governor Wright did a very wise thing; he 



192 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

had a suit brought before the court to determine 
whether or not the proprietor of Livingston Manor 
had a right to collect the rents. The court decided that 
the law was on the side of the proprietors. It there- 
fore looked as though the farmers were beaten; but 
they were not. Public opinion is always on the side 
of justice, and if the real facts of the case are known, 
an honest public is always on the right side. Although 
the farmers were worsted in the trial suit they were 
really victorious, for when the proprietors saw that the 
people of the state were against them, they at once 
sold the lands to the farmers on very easy terms. 

And thus the famous Anti-Rent and the Helder- 
berg War came to an end. 



XXXV. MAKING GOOD CITIZENS— THE 
SCHOOLS OF NEW YORK 

Just before the Spanish- American War, it is said 
that a gunner trained one of the heavy guns of a 
fort upon a target between six and seven miles away. 
His first shot fell a few feet short of the target; the 
second smashed it into splinters. When some one 
asked the young artilleryman how he became such 
a -wonderfully accurate marksman, he replied: " Oh, I 
suppose I learned it at school; for a teacher of whom 



THE SCHOOLS OF NEW YORK 



193 



I was very fond always insisted that we boys should 
be precise about everything we did." 

It is safe to say that the young man was quite right. 
Indeed the best lesson that one ever learns is learnino- 
to do things, not only well, but in the very best man- 
ner. And Avhere shall young people learn how to do 
things in the very best possible wa}^ if not at school? 

The great Empire 
State has learned this 
lesson, and so has every 
other state in the Union ; 
and at about half-past 
eight every day except 
Saturday and Sunday, 
sixteen millions of chil- 
dren are on their way to 
school. At nine o'clock 
they are in their seats, 
and until three or four 
o'clock in the afternoon 
they are learning how to do things well, and that is 
learning to become good citizens of the Republic. 

It is well-nigh three hundred years since Adam Roe- 
landson, then the solitary schoolmaster in all Kew York, 
eked out a rather scanty living b}^ digging graves, 
sweeping the church and training the choir, in addi- 
tion to his more unthankful task of teaching the three 




ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 



194 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

K's. Perhaps he neglected some of the E,'s when 
duties in the churchyard were pressing, but certainly 
the dignity of the first pedagogical office was his. A 
hundred years later when New York was an English 
colony there were two or three grammar schools in 
Avhich Latin, Greek and geometry were taught. 

About this time, too, there began to be a great many 
complaints. Many of the well-to-do people were loud 
in their demands that a college should be established. 
There was a very vigorous institution at Princeton, 
I^ew Jersey, and another, Yale College, in Connecticut. 
Quite a number of New York boys had been sent to 
these colleges, and when they came back there was 
trouble. The boys were full of ideas about popular 
government and '^ peoples' rights " — just as if the peo- 
ple had any rights when there was a king and an 
aristocracy to govern them ! 

So King's College was founded in 1754, and the 
founders took great care that none but good, sound 
royalist teachers should be employed, and that sub- 
mission to the king should be the watchword. Never- 
theless there were two boys who did a little thinking 
for themselves; these boys were Gouverneur Morris 
and Alexander Hamilton. And less than thirty years 
was to elapse before New York should be a sov^ereign 
state and King's College should become Columbia Col- 
lege. Hamilton and Morris were both heard from. 



THE SCHOOLS OF NEW YORK 



195 



The one became a statesman who largely shaped the 
policy of the Republic; the other, the financier who 
found the money to tide the country through the 
war of the Revolution. 

It was not until ]^ew York had been a state for 
nearly twenty years 
that the state itself 
began to pay for the 
education of its 
young people. In 
1795, for the first 
time, the legislature 
gave a small sum of 
money; a few years 
later a permanent 
fund was set aside 
for the support of the 
schools; in 1813 the 
state itself deter- 
mined to take charge 
of the schools and 
a State Superinten- 
dent of Public In- 
struction was appointed. 

During his lifetime there was one man above all 
the others that stood as the champion of the boys 
and girls of New York. From the time that he 




GOVEliXOK DE WITT CLINTON. 



^-^^"^^5-2-^ 



196 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

became a public officer he was always appealing for 
free schools, for better schools, for well-educated 
teachers, and well- trained, broad-minded boys and 
girls. That man was Gov^ernor De Witt Clinton. 

For a great many years it was a question Avhether 
or not there should be schools provided by the state 
and free to all children. A wealthy tax-payer who 
had no children could not see why he should be re- 
quired to pay for the education of other peoples' chil- 
dren; and so only the patrons of a school paid their 
shares or "rate bills" for the support of the school. 
Under such conditions there could be but very few 
good schools; and the poorest schools were in places 
where good instruction was most needed.^ 

It was not until after the Civil War, in 1867, that 
free schools finally were provided. After that time 
there were no longer any troublesome rate bills. The 
war taught the people a lesson that they needed to 
learn — namely, that both men and ^vomen must be 
educated if they are to be good citizens. The war 
also taught the people that ignorant voters, no matter 
how honest they may be, can do just as much harm 
as though they were rascals bent on doing mischief. 
It was a costly lesson, but it was well learned. 

Every succeeding year since the schools became 

* A free-school law was enacted in 1849, but was repealed the 
next year. 



THE SCHOOLS OF NEW YORK 197 

free, the people have been doing something or other to 
better them. Kormal schools have been provided for 
the training of young men and women who in turn 
are to train the pupils ; and a great many training 
schools and classes have been established for those 
whom the normal schools could not reach. High 
schools, colleges, and universities have been founded 
for the higher branches of learning ; and manual 
training schools have been established all over the 
state. And why? — because experience has taught 
that the best business investment which the country 
can undertake is the making of intelligent, law-abid- 
ing citizens. 

Fifty years ago the idea of compelling children to 
attend school would have been scouted. People would 
have said that it was going back to the time when New 
York was a Crown colony and existed only that the 
king might have something to govern. Nowadays 
the people would not have it any other way, for they 
have learned that the enemy most of all to be feared 
is ignorance. 

Fifty years ago if any one had proposed to carry 
pupils to school in carriages, or to provide them with 
car-fare, every one would have thought it a great 
joke. At the beginning of the twentieth century this 
is being done in nearly every county in the state. 
And it was a great thing when this plan was brought 



198 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

about — not that it gave the pupils line drives, but 
because it gave them better schools. Before this plan 
was adopted there were a great many small districts 
that could not possibly support a good school; they 
could ill afford to have even a poor one. But in 
many instances it so happened that two adjoining 
districts could have one very good school for less 
than two poor ones would cost, provided that the 
children living at a distance were carried to school. 
And the plan proved to be a most wise one in almost 
every way. 

For training the young people of l^ew York to 
good citizenship it costs the state about thirty-live 
millions of dollars every year — and that is a great deal 
of money. If one Avere to take that amount in half 
dollars, loaded into twenty freight cars, and lay a 
line of coins touching one another all around the 
borders of the state there would be something like 
half a car load remaining. Does it pay to spend so 
much money as that for education ? 

Here is what a celebrated English general says of 
some American volunteer soldiers, who doffed their 
business suits to put on Uncle Sam's uniform to go 
into battle within two weeks thereafter. "It is not 
that American soldiers are braver, or that American 
rifles are better than those of European armies. But 
the American soldier is well educated ; he quickly sees 



THE GREAT RAILWAY SYSTEMS 199 

what is to be done and immediately takes it upon him- 
self to do it." If it pays to have good citizens, then 
it certainly pays to educate them, for education is the 
training that makes good citizens. 



XXXVI. HOW THE GREAT RAILWAY SYSTEMS OF 
THE STATE WERE FORMED 



After the Erie Canal had been finished and the cost 
of carrying a bushel of grain from Buffalo to New 
York City was only about one-third as much as before, 
the people thought that they could enjoy no greater 
prosperity. Nevertheless there was certain gossip that 
soon became a matter of general talk. A man named 
John Stevens, who lived in Hoboken, New Jersey, 
Avent before the Congress at Washington and said that 
he had a way by which he could move carriages by 
steam power on level rails at a speed of a mile in three 
minutes. Moreover, he claimed that the carriages 
could be made large enough so that twenty or thirty 
passengers could be seated in one of them. 

The Congress was too busy to trifle with such a 
dreamer and he was sent about his business. Stevens 
then went to the Council of the city of Philadelphia ; 
the Council laughed at him, too. The business men of 
Philadelphia, however, did not laugh, because they 



200 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

were in a state of consternation. The Erie Canal, 
which meant success and prosperity to the people of 
New York, meant trouble and adversity to Philadel- 
phia. Stevens therefore got a cliarter for a railroad, 
because the business men forced it from the legislature 
of Pennsylvania, but the road was not built, inasmuch 
as no one would loan the money for it. This, was in 
the winter of 1822 and 1823. 

The talk about a railroad soon became a general 
topic of conv^ersation, and the legislature of New 

York feared that 
the old route 
from Philadel- 
phia to Harris- 
l)urg and Pitts- 
burg might get 

AN OLD STYLE RAILWAY TRAIN. |^ ^^ ^ ] , ^ ^ ^^^ ^ ^^ 

the trade it had lost. So, in 1825, a charter was given 
for the Mohawk and Hudson Kailroad, between Al- 
bany and Schenectady. This was the first chartered 
railroad to be built in America, but a short section of 
the Baltimore and Ohio had been opened for traffic 
before the Mohawk and Hudson was finished. Work 
on the latter was rather slow and, indeed, about as 
much track and roadbed can now be built in a month 
as was then built in a year. For a wliile the cars and 
coaches on both roads were drawn by horses ; then the 




-is 'i3''.4^«i=< 



THE GREAT RAILWAY SYSTEMS 201 

Mohawk and Hudson, in order to get the better of its 
rival, the Baltimore and Ohio, ordered a steam-driven 
locomotive from the foundry at West Point. The 
locomotive, named the DeWitt Clinton, made its first- 
regular trip from Albany to Schenectady, August 9, 
1831. 

The success of the steam railway was no longer a 
matter of doubt, and the people began to demand 
quicker and better means of getting about from one 
part of the state to another. They clamored for rail- 
roads — and they got them. In less than twenty years 
there were eleven lines in the central part of the state, 
not one of which was more than one hundred miles 
long. There were two between New York and Al- 
bany; the others formed links that connected Albany 
and Buffalo. In 1843 a passenger on a fast train left 
Albany at six o'clock in the morning and reached 
Buffalo, after changing several times from one train 
to another, at seven o'clock the next morning — twenty- 
five hours for a trip that noAV takes but little more than 
live hours ! 

In 1851 another important railway was built to the 
west and, rather strangely, it at first touched neither 
New York City nor Buffalo. This was the New York, 
Lake Erie and Western — now called the Erie Railroad. 
About twenty miles north of New York City, a short 
distance south of Nyack, a long pier was built out 



202 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

from the west shore of Hudson Kiver, and this was 
the eastern end of the Erie Railroad — the site of the 
present village of Piermont. Tlie Avestern end of the 
road was at Dunkirk, on the shore of Lake Erie. In 
time, however, New York and Buffalo were made 
terminals of the road. 

While the farmers and coal miners in Pennsylvania 
were trying to find a means of getting their produce to 
market, a canal was built from Honesdale on the Dela- 
ware River to Kingston on the Hudson. It was called 
the Delaware and Hudson Canal. The makers of the 
canal, however, were shrewd enough to include in 
their charter the right to build a railway. This they 
did in very short order, and the road, afterward ex- 
tended up the Champlain Yalley to Montreal and 
southward from Albany into the coal mines of Penn- 
sylvania, has become a very important route. 

For a long time there was a great deal of trouble 
among the short railways that connected New York 
and Buffalo. None of them were good paying invest- 
ments, and some were bankrupt. By and by the 
right man came along. His name was Cornelius Yan- 
derbilt and he had been a very successful steamboat 
manager. He bouglit the various roads between 
New York and Albany and then combined them to 
make the New York and Hudson River Railroad. 
At the same time he combined the short roads in 



THE GREAT RAILWAY SYSTEMS 



208 



central New York to form the New York Central 
Eailway. 

Finally the ' ' Commodore, ' ' as Yanderbilt was called, 




HORSESHOE BEND, NIAGARA FALLS. 

consolidated the two lines to make one of the greatest 
roads in the world, the New York Central and Hud- 
son Kiver Kailroad. This road now has more than 
eleven thousand miles of track and its trains reach 



204 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

most of the large cities east of the Mississippi Eiver, 
and along the Great Lakes. Some of the shares of 
stock in the road that the old Commodore bouo-ht at 
three cents each are now worth more than four hun- 
dred dollars each. 

In time, other roads were built. The Eome, Water- 
town and Ogdensburg lay along the south shore of 
Lake Ontario from Magara Falls, its eastern end being 
a net- work of roads that reach almost every town and 
city in the northern part of the state; this road after- 
wards was made a part of the New York Central. Then 
the famous West Shore road was built from ]^ew York 
to Buffalo, and it, too, was joined to the Xew York 
Central. 

But because of the grain and meat coming from the 
great prairie farms of the west, and the coal from 
Pennsylvania, there was need of more railways, and 
so the Lehigh A^alley, the Lackawanna, and the JN'ew 
York, Ontario and Western roads were built. And 
even now it is almost impossible for these great rail- 
ways to carry the foodstuffs that they, in turn, must 
deliver to the big freighters to be transported across 
the ocean to the people in Europe. 

Only one of the great railways reaches Kew York 
City; the others must land their passengers and goods 
on the New Jersey side of the Hudson to be carried 
across in ferry boats. All this is very wasteful both 



THE GREAT RAILWAY SYSTEMS 



205 



of time and of money. So the railways ending at Jersey 
City determined upon a very bold thing, namely — to 
construct two great tunnels under the river in order to 
land their freight and passengers in New York instead 




.^. CITUVE IX THE L1.E\.\IED UAlLltOAD, NEW YOKK V\T\ . 



of in ]N"ew Jersey. One of these tunnels was finished 
in 1904; the other, the Pennsylvania tunnel, planned to 
cross both Hudson and East Rivers, and passing under 
New York and out at Brooklyn, was begun in that year. 
More than twenty years ago it was found that both 
the surface street railways and the elevated railway, or 
"L Koad" as it is called, could not move the great 



206 THE MAKIXG OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

army of men and Avomen from their homes to their 
places of business and back again at night. Horse cars 
gave place to cars pulled by an underground cable, and 
these were supplanted b}' large and swift-moving 




CopijrhjIiJid hij A. Lo>Jki . 

THE RAPID TRANSIT SUBWAY, CITY HALL STATION, NEW YORK CITY. 

electric cars. Between 1890 and 1900 the various city 
railways were improved so that they could carry al- 
most three times as many passengers in the same length 
of time as previously. But because the number of 
passengers increased about threefold during that 
period, the trouble increased each succeeding year. 



A YANKEE CHEESE-BOX ON A RAFT 207 

Then there came along another genius, McDonald, 
who did for Kew York City what Commodore Van- 
derbilt had done for the state. McDonakl built an 
underground railway, one branch going on the east 
side, and the other on the west side of the city. 
There Avere hundreds of miles of great sewer-pipes, 
water mains, gas mains, steam-pipes, and electric- wire 
conduits to be moved, but the work was done with 
very little disturbance of the business going on in the 
streets above. The "Rapid Transit Subway," as it 
is called, is one of the o^reatest feats of eno^ineerino- ever 
devised, and by means of it very nearly two million 
passengers may be carried every day of twenty- 
four hours. 



XXXVII. HOW A YANKEE CHEESE-BOX ON A RAFT 
SAVED NEW YORK CITY 

In 1861 the long-strained link in the relations be- 
tween Is"orthern and Southern states snapped, and the 
whole country faced a civil war. The Southern states 
wished to withdraw from the Union and establish a 
Confederacy; the ISTorthern states were determined 
that the Union of states should not be broken. 

During that terrible war of four years every state, 
:N"orth and South, put forth most tremendous efforts, 



208 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

for on each side men knew that it was to be a strug- 
gle to the death for one side or the other. How they 
fought can best be judged by the fact that when peace 
was finally made, almost one million men lay in their 
graves, to be called only when the last trumpet shall 
summon both the quick and the dead. To that great 
struggle there went from the State of Kew York very 
nearly five hundred thousand brave men, many thou- 
sand of whom were never to return. 

At no time was any part of the state a battle 
ground between Union and Confederate troops; but 
during the month of March, 1862, it seemed that the 
destruction of New York City was very near at hand, 
and for several days, so far as human knowledge could 
foresee, the doom of the city was almost certain. 

At the beginning of the war, among the United 
States war vessels that fell into the hands of the Con- 
federates, was the wooden steamshij) Merrhnac, a 
40-gun frigate. The torch was applied to her as she 
lay at her anchorage in IN'orfolk Navy Yard, and she 
burned to the water's edge and sank. A short time 
afterwards, however, it was found that her hull and 
engines were not injured, and she was raised and put 
in the dock. Then a very clever naval constructor 
in the Confederate service began his part of the work. 

On her berth-deck he built a bulwark in shape very 
much like a chicken coop, except that it sloped to a 



A YANKEE CHEESE-BOX ON A RAFT *2<)9 

peak on all four sides instead of on two. This bul- 
wark, made of very heavy timbers, Avas two feet in 
thickness. A part of the timber was pitch pine, but 
the outer four inches were of the hardest oak that 
could be found. On the outside of the timber were 
two layers of rolled iron plates each two inches thick. 
The vessel thus rebuilt was named the Virgnua. 

When the Virginia was completed, she was thought 
to be the most formidable war vessel afloat. She 
was practically the first ironclad war vessel, and prob- 
ably the first armored ship to engage in battle. She 
could ram and sink any wooden vessel without fear of 
their guns; she .could leisurely pass any fort or earth- 
Avork on the coast of the United States, for the shot 
from their guns would harm her scarcely more than 
would so many pebbles. 

Before such a fighting terror Xcav York City was 
absolutely helpless. It happened, hoAvever, that sev- 
eral United States men-of-war were at Hampton Eoads, 
in the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. Before starting for 
the northern seaports, the Virginia turned aside to 
destroy these, and her doing this proved in the end her 
own undoing. It is true that she shot and battered the 
Cumlerlancl and the Congress lo pieces, but having done 
this her day of reckoning was at hand. Succor came 
from Kew York City, for the destruction of which 
the Virginia was built. 



21U 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 



For some years before the Civil AVar, there had been 
living in New York Citj a famous engineer named 
John Ericsson. Ericsson had designed an armored 
vessel, the chief feature of which was a revolving 
turret in which the guns were to be mounted. More- 
over, he had laid his plans before naval authorities, 

who had not only 
scoffed at his ideas 
but snubbed the author 
as well. But the need 
of an armored vessel 
had become very ur- 
gent, for it was well 
known in New York 
City and in Washing- 
ton what the Vir- 
g{?iia was to be, and 
where her lirst attack 
was likely to be made. 
So, because of the 
pleading of almost the whole city, the government 
signed a contract with Ericsson for the famous 
'^Yankee cheese-box on a raft" — a strange looking 
vessel with hardly anything but a turret and conning 
tower in sight, her hull being so low in the water 
that her deck was constantly awash by the waves. 
The government had so little confidence in Ericsson's 




JOHN ERICSSON. 



A YANKEE CHEESE-BOX OX A RAFT 211 

plans that no nionej^ was to be paid for the vessel if 
she proved a failure. Nevertheless, this same vessel 
was destined to save New York City and to change 
the navies of the entire world as well. 

On the 25 th of October, 1861, the keel of the new 
vessel w^as laid in the shipyard at Greenpoint, Long- 
Island; and in just one hundred days afterward the 
vessel was launched. A great many naval officers said 
that such a crazy craft would never float ; only one man 
had full confidence in her, and he was her builder. 
Ericsson named the vessel the Monitor. 

The Monitor w^as very simply constructed. On her 
heavily-plated deck w^as the low turret containing two 
eleven-inch guns. With such an arrangement it was 
not necessary to turn the vessel in order to get a range 
with the guns; the turning of the turret would bring 
them into range in a verj^ few seconds. There Avas 
a short smokestack and a conning tower forward for 
the steersman. So low did the Monitor sit in the 
water that, a mile away, her turret was about the 
only thing visible. 

It was not until after the Virginia was about com- 
pleted and ready for her murderous work that the 
Monitor was ordered to Hampton Eoads. Even after 
she had started on the trip, so little was the confi- 
dence of the government in her ability for service, 
that a fast tug was sent to overtake her and call her 



212 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 



back to Xew York. It was a matter of sheer good 
fortune that the tug could not overhaul her. In the 
terrible voyage from New York Bay to Hampton 
Eoads, officers and crew were fighting for dear life to 
keep the Monitor afloat, and for one hundred and 




THE BATTLE BETWEEN THE VlUalSL 



111-; MnMToi;. 



thirty hours they scarcely slept or ate. When the 
vessel reached Hampton Eoads, however, the chief 
task was still ahead of them, and hungry and drenched 
the men went to the guns. 

The Congress and tlie Cuml>erla7id\Yeve already at the 
bottom, half their men killed or drowned. In a few 
more hours the Minnesota, Boariohe, and St. Lawrence 
would have shared the same fate. On the morning 



A DEMAGOGUE AND HIS POLICY 213 

of the 9th of March, Lieutenant John Worclen, the 
commander of the Monitor, received his orders to re- 
turn immediately to Xew York — and he put the same 
into his pocket. 

How the Monitor, scarcely one-quarter the size of 
her adversary, went into the fight, steamed round and 
round the Virginia, pounded her with eleven-inch shot, 
rammed her, and finally drove her in flight to Nor- 
folk, are facts well known to every reader of history. 
The Virginia had been mistress of the seas for twenty- 
four short hours; then the sceptre passed to the Mon- 
itor. And in less than twenty-five years the war 
ships of the entire world were made of steel instead 
of Avood. Ericsson's vessel was trulv a Monitor. 



XXXVIII. A DEMAGOGUE AND HIS POLICY— THE 
NEW YORK DRAFT RIOTS 



It is a great misfortune that the foremost city of 
the American continent should ever have been con- 
trolled by an organized gang of thieves, rascals, and 
blacklegs, and that the great mass of law-abiding peo- 
ple should be for years at their mercy. Yet this has 
more than once happened; doubtless it has happened 
at some time or other to pretty nearly every large 
city in the world. 



214 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

Early in the '50's a man named Fernando Wood be- 
came a great political power in ^ew York City. 
Wood was an exceedingly able man, and as unscrupu- 
lous as he was brilliant. He organized political clubs 
all over the city, and at the head of each club was a 
trusted political servant upon whom Wood could rely 
to do his bidding. Wood had learned a secret that 
not all law-abiding people have yet learned, namely — 
that success in politics depends upon good organization. 

Wood was bold and lawless. At one time, while he 
was mayor of the city, he defied the authority of the 
state and it was necessary to call out the 7th regiment 
of state militia to teach him the much -needed lesson 
that the laws of the state apply to mayors as well as 
to private citizens. His mob of thugs slunk away be- 
fore the uniforms of the national guard, and he per- 
mitted himself to be arrested without further resist- 
ance. Because of his wonderful ability as a leader, 
however, he succeeded by the votes of his mob in get- 
ting himself elected mayor a second time, and he was 
in office when the Civil War began. 

Wood's first message to the common council showed 
the character of the man. He said that the union of 
the states was broken and proposed that New York 
City, with Long and Staten Islands, should form a 
free and independent city to be called " Tri-Insula. " 
The only answer to this act of disloyalty was the tramp 



A DEMAGOGUE AND HIS POLICY 215 

of one hundred and twenty thousand men who in a 
very few months marched through Kew York City on 
their way to the front. 

The immediate effect of Wood's action was twofold. 
It created a belief that Xew York City was disloyal 
and therefore brought a great many disunionists to 
the city. It also encouraged the great mob of idle 
loafers to gather around the slums and plague 
spots of the city. Sowing the wind ma}^ be a very 
pleasant pastime, but reaping whirlwinds is quite 
another matter. Wood had planted and watered his 
crop well; he left the reaping of it to his successor, 
Mayor Opdyke. 

The great need for more troops had impelled the 
Congress of the United States to draft soldiers. That 
is, lists of the names of able-bodied men were made in 
the various states; the names were put into covered 
boxes, and officers appointed for the purpose drew the 
required number of names. The men whose names 
were thus drawn were then compelled to serve as 
soldiers — that is, they were ''drafted" into service. 
It is hardly necessary to say that this method of get- 
ting soldiers was not popular. In this case there was a 
very unwise ])rovision which allowed a man who had 
been drafted to escape by a payment of the sum of three 
hundred dollars to the United States Treasury. This 
method of purchasing a substitute, if one happened to 



21(7 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 



be drafted, the street-corner politicians declared to be 
an imposition on the poor man. The latter must 
serve in the ranks of the army, while his rich neigh- 
bor might go scot free. 

On the first day of the draft, July 11, 1863, there 
was no trouble, but two days later, on Monday, a mob 




amd^l i^ 



THE NEGRO ORPHAN ASYLUM, 



attacked a United States marshal's office at the corner 
of Third Avenue and Forty- Sixth Street and wrecked 
it. The Negro Orphan Asylum at Fifth Avenue near 
Forty-Fourth Street was next looted and burned; then 
the mob started for another marshal's office on Broad- 
v/ay near Tvventy-Eiglith Street. By this time the 
mob numbered about five thousand. They demolished 
the marshal's office, and having looted most of the 
stores nearby, began a rapid march towards Mulberry 



A DEMAGOGUE AND HIS POLICY 217 

Street, shouting, ''Kill the police! Kill the police!" 
But they found one policeman, it seems, who did not 
reckon on being killed— Sergeant Daniel Carpenter. 
Carpenter assembled two hundred policemen and met 
the mob. ''Hit for their heads, men, and hit hard," 
was the only order Carpenter gave. It took but a 
few minutes to dispose of the mob, and in very short 
order Broadway was cleared of all except the rioters 
who lay around the street with battered and broken 
heads. 

In the evening, however, the mob gathered again 
and made a desperate attempt to wreck and burn the 
JSTew York Tribune building, on Park Row. This time 
they were met by Inspector George Dilks with about 
one hundred men. Dilks made up his mind that sterner 
means ought to be employed and so he armed his men 
with revolvers. The mob was in a very ugly mood 
and when Dilks had disposed of it about thirty rioters 
lay dead in the street. 

By Tuesday morning riots had broken out in a dozen 
parts of the city, and although the police could dispose 
of the mob at any one place, the whole force could not 
check the riots that were going on in a score of other 
places. Small bands were patrolling the streets mur- 
dering every Xegro upon whom they could lay hands ; 
larger bands were looting stores and burning houses. 
Mayor Opdyke's house was badly damaged, and the 



21b THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

residence of Henry J. Kaymond, editor of the Times, 
was gutted. 

Thie rioting continued Wednesday morning, but 
during the afternoon the troops that had been sum- 
moned to Pennsylvania to beat back General liobert 
E. Lee's army began to arrive, and in a very short 
time they were at work on the rioters ; in a very short 
time, moreover, there were no rioters, for well dis- 
ciplined troops make quick work with such stuff. 
Mayor Opdyke finally announced that order had been 
restored. It was a costly lesson to New York City, 
for more than two million dollars' Avorth of property 
had been destroyed. Incidentally, more than twelve 
hundred rioters had been slain. 

Mayor Wood had sown the wind; the riots were the 
crop of cyclones that was to be harvested. 



XXXIX. THIRTY YEARS OF PROSPERITY AND 
PROGRESS— GREATER NEW YORK CITY. 

After the Civil War was at an end and peace had 
come, the years that followed were years of pros- 
perity. Many thousand miles of railway were built 
through the fertile prairies of the west, and millions of 
acres of land that had never produced anything but 
wild grass and prairie wolves were turned under by the 



GREATER XEW YORK CITY 219 

plough and became IB elds of grain. Railroad sidings 
became villages and the villages grew into cities. Our 
trade with Europe grew by leaps and bounds; our in- 
dustries at home grew even faster. 

All this was a shower of gold upon New York State. 
The produce of the west that was destined for Europe 
entered the state at Buffalo and left it at Kew York 
City. These two cities therefore became great gate- 
w^ays of commerce. Buffalo received the grain and 
produce from the w^est; J^ew York City sent it to 
Europe. The fact that one of the great trade routes 
of the world lay through the state still continued to 
make it the Empire State. 

The increase of business affected both the state and 
the city in many w^ays. It brought more people into 
both because there was more business. It helped the 
farmer and the dairymen because there were more 
people to be fed, and it helped all of the various trades 
because there were more people to be housed and to be 
clothed. It compelled Kew York City to build the 
new Croton Aqueduct because the old aqueduct could 
not bring enough water for so many people. 

But the means for getting from the home of the busi- 
ness man to his office were very poor — 'busses and horse 
cars being about the only way. And so the grain and 
meat growing on the prairie farms of the west com- 
pelled New York City to build better and larger 



2:^0 THE MAKIN^G OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

buildings for manufacture and for the transaction of 
business. Then the floor space of the business part of 
the cit}^ became so crowded that there Avas nowhere 
room enough; so, one after another, the three and 
four story buildings of brick or stone were pulled down 
and great ''skyscrapers" ten, fifteen, twenty, and 
twenty-five stories built of steel frames and stone fill- 
ing were put in their places. 




TUF. OLD (KOTOX AQUEDI^f'T AT HAHLE:\I HHEIJ. 

We all know about the great captains that led the 
soldiers and sailors to victory in the Civil War; but 
there are other great captains — captains of industry 
whose names ought never to be forgotten. Among 
them are the names of some who have finished their 
great work. These are Cornelius Yanderbilt, the 
founder of one of the greatest railway systems in the 
world, and Engineer John Roebling, who tied Brooklyn 
to New York with the magnificent steel suspension 



GREATER NEW YORK CITY 221 




OF NEW YORK CITY. 

bridge. There are also in the list men now engaged in 
making the world move. There is Thomas Edison, best 
known as the AVizard of. Electricity; tbere is Alexan- 
der Graham Bell, the organizer of the first telephone 
S3^stem; there is Engineer John B. McDonald, who 
built the wonderful rapid transit tunnels underneath 
'New York City, and there is John Pierpont Morgan, 
Jr., one of the greatest organizers of industry that 
has ever lived. 

During the period of prosperity the Empire State did 
not forget the welfare of her people in the way of 
recreation and amusement. Xew York City, a long 
time ago, set the example by giving more than one 
thousand acres of the most valuable land in the city to 
be used as recreation and playgrounds ; and on two of 
these, Central Park and Battery Park, many millions 
of dollars have been spent in order to make them 
beautiful and attractive. Long years of experience have 



222 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 



shown til at the parks have paid for themselves many 
times over in making the people healthier and happier 
— and therefore better. 

Only a few years ago the state followed the example 
set by New York City in tearing out the obstruc- 
tions and manv swindlino: devices that so lono: liad dis- 
graced Magara Falls. Now a wide strip of land has 




A VIEW IN CENTRAL TAKK, NEW YORK CITY. 

been set apart on each side of the river, and made into 
a beautiful park free to all. And having done this the 
state did even a more generous thing; it made most of 
the Adirondack highland a great forest reserve to be 
enjoyed by the people. 

Almost from the time of the founding of New Am- 
sterdam, the cities that afterwards became New York 
and Brooklyn grew side by side, with only the narrow 
ribbon of water called East Kiver between them. In 
time other cities and villages grew about them — 
Flushing, Long Island City, East Chester, Westches- 



THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 22'6 

ter, Wakefield and many other younger villages. In 
1890 it was agreed to find a way by which to join 
all these centers of population in one great city. 

So a commission was appointed with Judge Andrew 
H. Green at its head. Four years later the people 
voted on the matter and, as a result, the cities were 
finally consolidated. Manhattan Island became Bor- 
ough of Manhattan ; the city of Brooklyn became Bor- 
ough of Brooklyn; Flushing and Long Island City, 
with a few outlying villages, became Borough of 
Queens; Staten Island, the Borough of Richmond; 
and everything north of Harlem River, the Borough 
of the Bronx. Thus Greater New York City came 
into existence.^ 



XL. THE LESSON OF THE SPANISH-AMERI- 
CAN WAR. 

We are apt to look upon war as a great horror, as 
indeed it is. But war is less horrible than ignorance; 
lack of patriotism and widespread dishonesty are vices 
that are even more deadly to a nation than war. If 
a people become forgetful of the debt they owe their 
country — if they forget that self-government requires 
intelligent thought, asbolute honesty, and the sacri- 

* See map on page 243. 



224 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIEE STATE 



fice of self, they need to be promptly shaken into a 
sense of their duty. And if a war is the only thing 
to stimulate them to dut}^, the quicker it comes the 
better. Indeed, there is one warfare that should 
always keep the people of a nation in arms, — the war- 
fare against ignorance, dishonesty, and vice. 

For many years there had been trouble between 




SHIPPING IN NEW YORK HAKBOR. 
Showing the Brooklyn Bridge in the baclvground. 

Spain and her West Indian colony, the island of Cuba. 
For the greater part of the time during the last thirty 
years of the century, Cuba had been in a condition of 
civil war ; her industries were almost throttled and 



THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 'I'l^ 

some of the great plantations had been abandoned be- 
cause there was no security of government. 

There has always been a great deal of trade be- 
tween the United States and Cuba, the most of which 
came through the port of New York. Americans, too, 
had large interests in the sugar and the tobacco planta- 
tions on the island; and the long-continued rebellion 
and civil war had injured these in a great many ways. 
It was not until General Weyler became the military 
governor of the island, however, that the people of 
the United States were aroused, and a general feeling 
of indignation prevailed. 

Among the plans made by Weyler, one was most 
horrible. He gathered the defenseless people of the 
smaller villages into great camps called '' camps of con- 
centration." If they went to these camps they were 
slowly starved to death; if they refused they were 
murdered. For a long time the United States govern- 
ment took no notice of these horrors; on the other hand 
the people did and their feelings soon reached a 
fever heat. Finally, the battleship Maine, while at 
anchor in Havana harbor, was blown up by a torpedo 
and most of her crew were killed. 

After that, the demand that the United States should 
force Spain to give the Cubans a good government be- 
came stronger and stronger every day. Finally, 
President Mclvinley with the authority of the Con- 



226 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 



gress sent a demand that Spain Avitbdraw from the 
West Indies altogether. Of course such a message 
meant war; but the war was of very short duration, 
and, when it ended, the Spanish flag had left the 
American continent forever. 

The effect upon the people was most wholesome. 




THE CAPITOL OF THE E.MPIKE STATE AT ALliAXY. 

At the first call to arms men from every part imme- 
diately responded. Rich and poor, old and young, 
they fought side by side on the steep slope of San 
Juan Hill, and in the trenches before Santiago. New 
York gave up her most priceless treasures — her patri- 
otic sons. For the time self was wholly forgotten and 
duty to our country was the only thought. The les- 



THE spanish-amp:rican war 227 

son, therefore, to the young men and women of the 
state was a most beneficial one. Many of tliem for the 
first time had been taught to think of their country. 
And when the war was at its close, they Avere better 
men and women because of the experience. 

One man, more than any other, came to be beloved 
by the whole nation because of the Spanish-American 
war, and that one was William McKinley, the Presi- 
dent of the United States, whose clear mind and great 
wisdom carried the country through the struo-o-le. 
For years it was his desire to draw the states of All- 
America into closer commercial union. The Pan- 
American Exposition, held at Bufi"alo, in 1901, was 
intended to make the South American States better 
acquainted with each other and with the United States. 
To this idea President McKinley gave the whole 
strength of his character. It was while he was 
shaking hands Avith the people that had gathered at 
the Exposition grounds to meet their Chief Magis- 
trate that he fell, mortally hurt by the bullet of a 
foul wretch, an anarchist, who had come there in 
order to assassinate him. 

Sometimes people say that the world is growing 
worse, and that men and women are not so upright 
now-a-days as they were years ago. This is not true. 
People are becoming better instead of worse. Every 
boy and every girl who has the pluck to do the right 



228 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

and honest thing is building on the foundations of a 
good character. And if the State of New York is to 
remain the Empire State in years to come, it will be, 
not because of her great wealth and wonderful re- 
sources, but because of the industry and integrity of 
the men and women who are now boys and girls in 
her schools. 



APPENDIX 

THE COUNTIES OF NEW YORK. 

The area now comprised in the State of Ne^Y York 
was acquired gradually. For the greater part the 
lands were granted to companies, who then disposed 
of them in small tracts to other companies or to indi- 
viduals Some of the lands were purchased outright 
by treaty from Indians ; some were simply taken with- 
out any deed. Thus Manhattan Island was purchased ; 
the lands along the Hudson were seized by the Dutch 
West India Company and divided into manors. The 
Patroon receiving the manor settled with the Indians 
as best he could. 

After the English occupation, large tracts of land 
Vv^ere sold or granted by James II (who had received 
them while Duke of York) to various companies or 
corporations. The deed conveying the land was called 
a ' ' patent ' ' and this name was also applied to the 
tract of land itself. Thus, after the Fort Stanwix 
treaty had given the central part of the state to the 
English, large tracts were granted in this manner, and 
Morris's, Middleton's, Upton's, Clotworthy's, and the 



230 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 




f: '5b 



O U 



^ -3 






1-4 IC 

o S 






THE COUNTIES OF NEW YORK 231 

Otego patents were granted in and about the valley 
of Unadilla and the adjacent rivers; among them, Sir 
William Johnson^s in the Charlotte Yalley, and a great 
number of others along the Susquehanna. In order 
to encourage settlement, in many cases tracts of one 
thousand acres were given to communities of people if 
only they would remove to the lands and make their 
homes upon them. 

After the close of the French and Indian wars the 
English acquired all the remaining lands now included 
in the state, and after the colonists had won their inde- 
pendence, all this territory finally became the State of 
JS"ew York. Little by little the Indians sold their 
lands to the white people; in some instances, how- 
ever, they were deprived of them in a manner that did 
not reflect much honor on the state. 

One large tract of land comprising all the western 
part of the state was claimed by Massachusetts. JSTew 
York acknowledged the justice of the claim and in 
1786 gave it to Massachusetts, retaining the right to 
govern it. Massachusetts sold it four years later to 
]S"athaniel Gorham and Oliver Phelps. They disposed 
of a part of it in small farms, and then sold the rest to 
Eobert Morris of Philadelphia for sixteen cents an acre. 
Morris became bankrupt and sold all that he had not 
already disposed of to a company in Amsterdam 
known as the Holland Land Company. In this man- 



232 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

ner it again became a part of the State of New 
York. 

In 1863, when the colony of New York was first per- 
mitted to elect an assembly, what now is the eastern 
part of the state was divided into ten counties: New 
York, Kings, Queens, Suffolk, Richmond, Westchester, 
Ulster, Dutchess, and Albany. In time the last three 
named were divided. New counties were formed in the 
western part of the state as the population increased. 

Albany. — An original county, formerly a part of 
Eensselaerwick. From the original county nearly all 
the counties of the northeastern part of the state were 
set off. A charter to the city of Albany was granted 
by Governor Dongan in 1686. Albany is the county 
seat and capital of the state. 

Allegany. — Formerly a part of the Holland Land 
Company's patent. It was set off from Genesee 
county in 1806. It was first settled by Philip Church 
in 1804. County seat, Belmont. 

Broome. — Set off from Tioga county in 1806. It was 
a part of a patent purchased in 1Y86 by William Bing- 
ham from the Massachusetts claim, and named for Lieu- 
tenant-Governor John Broome. It was probably first 
settled in 1787 by Joseph L6onard from Wyoming, Pa. 
County seat, Binghamton. 

Cattaraugus. — Set off from Genesee county in 



THE COUNTIES OF NEW YORK 233 

1808, and therefore is part of the HoUand Land Com- 
pany's patent. It was first settled about 1802 at Olean 
by Mayor Hoops of Albany, who named the settlement 
Hamilton after General Hamilton. County seat, Lit- 
tle Yalley. 

Cayuga. —Set off from Onondaga county and named 
from the Indian tribe in 1799. It was settled at Aure- 
lius, Genoa, and Scipio about 1789. The present name 
was given in 1805. Moravia was settled in 1791-. Salt 
springs occur at Montezuma. Auburn, the county 
seat, was settled in 1793 by Colonel John Harden- 
burg and called Hardenburg's Corners. 

Chautauqua. — Set off from Genesee county in 1808, 
though attached to it until 1811, and therefore a part 
of the Holland Land Company's patent. Probably a 
French trading post was established at Portland before 
and during the French and Indian wars. An Indian 
village existed near Frewsburg, on Connewango Creek, 
in 1790. A British and Indian fort was established at 
Chautauqua Lake in 1782 to threaten Fort Du Quesne. 
The first permanent settlement was made in the town 
of Kipley, 1801-1802, by General John McMahon. In 
1836 a number of people seized and destroyed the books 
and records of the Holland Land Company in order to 
prevent the latter from imposing unjust claims for pay- 
ment of lands. Dunkirk was formerly the western 
terminus of the Erie Railroad. County seat, IMay ville. 



234 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

Chemung. — Set off from Tioga county in 1836. The 
settlement of the county resulted from General Sulli- 
van's campaign in 1779, in which he defeated 1,000 
Indians and Tories under Colonel Butler and Chief 
Joseph Brant. Settlements were made at Elmira, Big 
Flats and Southport, 1786-1792, mainly from Pennsyl- 
vania. Horseheads is said to have received its name 
from the heads of cavalry horses that General Sullivan 
killed to prevent their falling into the hands of the 
enemy. Chemung was the first organized town in the 
county. Elmira, the county seat, was probably first 
settled by Colonel John Hardy. In 1790 a treaty was 
made between the Indians and the United States. A 
few years later the town was visited by Louis Philippe, 
afterward King of France, who, with his suite, walked 
from Canandaigua. 

Chenango. — Set off from Herkimer and Tioga coun- 
ties in 1798. There were settlements at Oxford in 
1790, and at Bainbridge in 1791. Bainbridge is a part 
of a grant of land made by New York to Vermont 
before the settlement of the boundaries. Greene was 
first settled by French emigrants, who afterward re- 
moved to Pennsylvania. Near the village is an old 
Indian burial mound. In Oxford are the remains of 
an old fort, probably used by Indians. County seat, 
Norwich. 

Clinton. — Set off from Washington county in 1788, 



THE COUNTIES OF NEW YORK 235 

aad named after the first governor of the state, George 
Clmton. This region was visited and explored by the 
French prior to the French and Indian wars. Perma- 
nent settlements were made at Plattsburg and Peru, 
1765-1766, by Zephaniah Piatt. Piatt purchased large 
tracts of land around Cumberland Bay, the scene of 
the battle won by Lieutenant McDonough, and for 
him the county seat was named Plattsburg. 

Columbia. — Set off from Albany county in 1786. 
It comprised a part of Rensselaer and Livingston man- 
ors. Among the early settlements were Germantown 
or East Camp, made by seventy families sent over by 
Queen Anne; Kinderhook, the birthplace of Martin 
Yan Buren, and Yalatie. Hudson, the county seat, 
was at one time an important center for the Avhale- 
fishing industry. 

Cortland. — Set off from Onondaga county in 1808. 
It was named after General Peter Yan Cortlandt, and 
comprised a part of the '' Military Tract," or land given 
to the soldiers of the Revolutionary War. Homer, the 
oldest town, was settled in 1794. County seat, Cort- 
land. 

Delaware. — Set off from Ulster and Otsego counties 
in 1797, mainly from lands included in the Hardenburg 
and Harper patents. It was named from Delaware 
River. A settlement was made at Harpersfield in 
1768-1770, which, with Deposit (formerly Cookose), 



236 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

was destroyed, 1780, by Chief Joseph Brant. County 
seat, Delhi. 

Dutchess. — One of the ten original counties, organ- 
ized in 1683 and named for the Duchess of York. A 
settlement was made at Fishkill by the Dutch before 
1664. About 1700 a tract including most of the towns 
of Hyde Park, Amenia, Pleasant Valley and Washing- 
ton was granted to a company called the Great Xine 
Partners. The "Oblong," a long, narrow strip, was 
deeded by Connecticut, 1731, in return for a coast area 
on Long Island Sound; this was afterwards called 
HaAvley's Patent. The first house in Poughkeepsie, 
the county seat, was built by Myndert Yan Kleek in 
1702. 

Erie. — Set off from Niagara county in 1821, and 
therefore (except a strip one mile wide on the river 
front) a part of the Holland Land Company's patent. 
The city of Buffalo was laid out in 1801, though 
settled a few years before that date. Grand Island 
was claimed by Canadian settlers as a tract neither 
within the United States nor Canada. They formed 
an independent settlement in 1816, but were after- 
wards dispossessed. A Jewish city of refuge was es- 
tablished, but it failed in its purpose. Buffalo and 
Black Kock were burned by the British in 1813. 
County seat, Buffalo. 

Essex. — Set off from Clinton county in 1799. It 



THE COUNTIES OF NEW YORK 237 

was named from a county in England, but was occu- 
pied by the Frencli before the French and Indian wars. 
A fort, St. Frederick, was built on Crown Point pro- 
montory in 1731, blown up, rebuilt, and named for the 
promontory. Fort Carillon, afterwards named Fort 
Ticonderoga, was built about three miles from the 
village of Ticonderoga. The county was settled 
mainly by immigrants from Vermont. County seat, 
Elizabeth town. 

Fkanklin.— Set off from Clinton county in 1808, 
and named for Benjamin Franklin. It belonged to 
the French until the close of the French and Indian 
wars, and is now the home of the St. Eegis Indians. 
Settlements were made by French at French Mills, now- 
Fort Covington, in 1800, and at Chateauguay in 1804. 
County seat, Malone. 

Fulton. — Set off from Montgomery county in 1838 
and named for Robert Fulton. The first settlements 
were made by Germans, probably at Oppenheim and 
Ephrata. Other settlements Avere made through Sir 
William Johnson about 1T6I:-1765 in the vicinity of 
Johnstown. The house in which Sir William lived is 
still standing, but his estates, then owned by his son, 
Sir John Johnson, were confiscated at the close of the 
Eevolutionary War. In 1780, Sir John Johnson at- 
tacked the town, killing and wounding a score or 
more of citizens, and burning many houses; the fol- 



238 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

lowing year, in a skirmish at the Hall Farm, Colonel 
Marinus Willett routed seven hundred Tories. County 
seat, Johnstown. 

Genesee. — Set off from Ontario county in 1802. 
It was named for the Genesee River and was a part 
of the Holland Land Company's patent. A settle- 
ment was made at Batavia, the county seat, about 
1800-1801. The county originally comprised all that 
part of the state west of and including a part of 
Monroe county. 

Greene. — Set off from Albany and Ulster in 1800, 
and named for General Nathaniel Greene. The Hard- 
enburg patent comprised the western part. Settle- 
ments were made by the Dutch in the latter part of the 
seventeenth century — probably at Cairo and Cox- 
sackie. Athens was incorporated in 1805; Catskill, the 
county seat, in 1806. 

Hamilton. — Set off from Montgomery county in 
1816 and named after Alexander Hamilton. It was 
explored by French traders before the French and In- 
dian wars. The first English settlements were made 
about 1800. County seat, Sageville. 

Herkimer. — Set off from Montgomery county in 
1791 and named for General Herkimer. It includes 
the grants made by King Hendrick to Sir William 
Johnson, the Jerseyfield patent, and the German Flatts 
tract. The battle of Oriskany was fought in this 



THE COUNTIES OF NEW YORK 239 

county, and in 1778 the village of Herkimer was burned 
by Chief Joseph Brant. Two years later Little Falls 
was destroyed. German Flatts, settled by German 
Lutherans, 1725, was destroyed by the French in 1757, 
forty being slain, and more than one hundred made 
captives of war. County seat, Herkimer. 

Jefferson. — Set off from Oneida county in 1805 and 
named for Thomas Jefferson. Settlements were made 
at Ellisburg in 1793 by Lyman Ellis, at Champion a 
year or two later, and at AYatertown in 1800 by Henry 
Coffin. Old Indian burial mounds and forts occur at 
several places in the county. Sacketts Harbor, the 
chief naval station during the War of 1812, was at- 
tacked by the British May 28, 1813, and again. May 
30, 1814, but each time the attack was repelled. 
County seat, Watertown. 

Kings. — An original county organized in 1013, and 
named for King Charles II. Merged into Greater New 
York City, 1898. 

Lewis. — Set off from Oneida county in 1805 and 
named for General Morgan Lewis, at that time gov- 
ernor of the state. The area included in the county 
belonged to Alexander Macomb and was sold by him 
to a company formed in New York City, with which 
Cornelius Low Avas connected. It was first settled 
probably at Lowville in 1797, by families from IJtica 
and Fort Stanwix (Kome). County seat, Lowville. 



240 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIKE STATE 

Livingston.— Set off from Genesee and Ontario 
counties in 1821. The Genesee Valley was the home 
of the Seneca Indians. In 1687, de ^"onville, the gov- 
ernor of Canada, attempted to exterminate them on 
account of their fidelity to the English, but failed after 
heavy losses. In 1789, General Sullivan ended his cam- 
paign in this county. Among the first white settlers 
was the infamous "Indian" Allen. The real history 
of the county began with the Wads worth (William and 
James) patents, which threw the land open to settle- 
ment. At Avon are the mineral springs, once the re- 
sort of the Seneca chief, Red Jacket. County seat, 
Geneseo. 

Madison. — Set off from Chenango county in 1806 
and named for James Madison. It includes a part of 
the Holland Land Company's patent. Settlements were 
made in 1790 at Eaton by Joseph Morse, and at Caze- 
novia in 1793 by Colonel John Linklaen. Most of the 
early settlers were from JSTew England. County seat, 
Morrisville. 

Monroe. — Set off from Genesee and Ontario coun- 
ties in 1821 and named for James Monroe. A military 
station and Indian trading post was established at Iron- 
dequoit Bay in 1726. A permanent white settlement, 
probably the first, was made at Ilenfords Landing, 
where was built the first house west of Genesee River. 
Early settlements were made at Scottsville (1800), 



THE COUNTIES OF NEW YORK Ml 

Pittsford and Port Genesee, now Charlotte. Kochester 
was laid out in 1812 and named for its chief promoter, 
JS'athaniel Kochester. A grist and saw mill was built 
on the river near the site of Main Street by '' Indian " 
Allen in 1789. County seat, Kochester. 

Montgomery. — Set off from Albany county in 1772. 
It was first named Tryon county for the royal gov- 
ernor; the present name is in honor of General Mont- 
gomery, who fell at Quebec. The country of which 
this county is a part was the home of the Mohawks, 
and the three Mohawk '" castles " or strong houses were 
destroyed by the French in 1693. The Church of Eng- 
land established missions for the Indians in 1702. Set- 
tlements were made about 1713 by German emigrants, 
and Fort Hunter Avas erected about the same time at 
the junction of Mohawk and Schoharie Kivers. A 
chapel was built by Queen Anne near by, and after- 
wards became the fort itself; the latter was torn down 
to make room for the Erie Canal. The first settlement 
in Amsterdam was made by the widow of Philip Groat 
of Kotterdam, the latter having been drowned in the 
Mohawk on his way. Palatine, Stone Arabia, Fort 
Plain and Canajoharie were partly destroyed by Tories 
and Indians during the Revolutionary AVar. Scarcely 
a settlement within the limits of the county escaped 
injury or destruction. County seat, Fonda. 

Kassau. — Created in 1898 from the parts of Kings 



242 



THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 



and Queens counties not taken into Greater New York 
City. 

New York. — Organized 1683. The former city and 




GREATER NEW YORK CITY AND VICINITY. 



county were identical. In 1898 the city of Brooklyn, 
together with parts of Kings, Queens, Westchester, 
and all of Richmond, Avere incorporated with the city, 
making ''Greater" New York. The city is now di- 



THE COUNTIES OF NEW YORK 243 

vided into Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and 
Richmond boroughs. 

Niagara. — Set off from Genesee county in 1808, 
and therefore a part of the Holland Land Company's 
patent. In 1697 La Salle built a strong house, or stock- 
ade, which became Fort Niagara, after having been 
rebuilt by the French in 1725. In 1712 the Tuscarora 
Indians removed to the county from North Carolina. 
In 1759 Fort Niagara was captured from the French 
by Sir William Johnson, and in 1796, after the War 
of the Eevolution, it was surrendered to the United 
States. During the War of 1812, Lewiston, Manchester 
(now Niagara Falls) and Tuscarora Avere burned. 
County seat, Lockport. 

Oneida. — Set off from Herkimer county in 1798 and 
named for the Indian tribe — the only one friendly to 
the colonists during the Revolutionary War. During 
the French and Indian wars in 1758, Fort Stanwix was 
built on the present site of Rome, and Fort Schuyler at 
Utica. In 1766 the Rev. Samuel Kirkland established 
a mission among the Oneidas; about the same time 
Judge Dean was made Indian Agent. These were among 
the first white settlers. In 1777 the battle of Oriskany 
was fought and Colonel St. Leger, the British com- 
mander, failed in the conquest of the central part of 
the state. In 1788 AVhitestown was founded by John 
White. The present area of the town of Steuben was 



244 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

given to Baron Steuben for his services during the 
Revolutionary War. At Oneida Castle the Councils 
of the Six ]S"ations Avere held. County seat, Utica. 

Onondaga. — Set off from Herkimer county in 1794 
and named for the Indian tribe who lived there. In 
1655, Father Dablon, a French Jesuit, established a 
mission at an Indian village in the present town of 
Salina, and in the following year a French colony under 
Sieur Dupuys was established at Onondaga Lake. The 
Indians were hostile and the colony abandoned the set- 
tlement after having made the Indians stupid at a 
drunken feast. In 1666 a French settlement was made 
in the town of Pompey, probably on Butternut Creek. 
A party of Spanish explorers finding the settlement, 
hired the Indians to murder the French. The Indians, 
in order to make the work thorough, killed the Span- 
iards as well. At Onondaga Hollow was the " castle " 
or chief council house of the tribe, which Avas destroyed 
by the French about 1697, but was rebuilt after the 
French had been driven out. The first Avhite settlers 
in the county Avere the Websters, Avho received lands in 
the Military Tract. In 1790 the village of Manlius Avas 
settled. The village of Syracuse was incorporated in 
1825. County seat, Syracuse. 

Ontario. — Set off from Montgomery county in 1789 
and therefore a part of the Holland Land Company's 
patent. In 1788, Oliver Phelps, who, Avith Nathaniel 



THE COUXTIES OF NEW YORK 245 

Gorhain, had purchased this tract from Massachusetts, 
made a settlement at Canandaigua. He purchased the 
land also from the Indians, thus receiving- a full deed 
for the pro])erty. The system of surveys in townships 
and sections, originated by Phelps, was afterwards 
adopted by the United States government. County 
seat, Canandaigua. 

Okange. — One of the original counties organized in 
1613 and named for the Prince of Orange, son of the 
Duke of York. Long before this, however, Dutch 
farmers had settled at Esopus (now Kingston), and it 
had become a flourishing village. As early as 1659, 
copper ore was exported to Holland. In 1669 the bat- 
tle of the Nimisink nearly exterminated the Indians of 
that region. During the War of the Kevolution a 
chain^ was stretched across the river by General Put- 
nam to prevent the British ships from ascending it. 
Sir Henry Clinton, then intending to relieve Burgoyne, 
broke the chain and captured Forts Clinton and Mont- 
gomery. In July, 1779, Chief Joseph Brant burned 
Ximisink. Troops gathered at Goshen started in pur- 
suit, but were ambushed by Brant and 180 were killed. 
Newburg was settled in 1701 by Germans. West Point 
was made the site of the United States Military Acad- 
emy in 1802. County seats, Goshen and Newburg. 

* Another was stretched from West Point to the opposite side in 
Putnam county. This one resisted an attack. 



246 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

Orleans. — Set off from Genesee county in 1824. It 
is situated in the Massachusetts Purchase, nearly the 
whole county being included in the Holland Land 
Company's patent. A settlement was made at Murra}^ 
in 1808 by people from New England. County seat, 
Albion. 

Oswego. — Set off from Oneid and Onondaga coun- 
ties in 1816 and named from the fort and Indian stock- 
ade. In 1722 a trading post Avas built on the east side of 
the river, and four years later the old fort was erected on 
the west side by Governor Burnet. Fort Ontario was 
built on the east side in 1755 by Governor Shirley. In 
the following year both forts together with 1,600 men 
were surrendered to the French under Montcalm after 
a stubborn siege. The new Fort Oswego was given to 
the United States after the close of the Eevolutionary 
"War by the treaty of 1794. Most of the land on the 
east side of the river was granted to Nicholas Roose- 
velt, but owing to his failure the tract was sold to 
George Scriba, a German merchant, and formed 
Scriba's patent. A part of the county once belonged 
to Alexander Hamilton. The county was first settled 
at Oswego, the county seat. 

Otsego. — Set off from Montgomery county in 1791 
and named for Otsego Lake. Cooperstown, the county 
seat, was named for the family of which James Feni- 
more Cooper was a descendant. 



THE COUNTIES OF NEW YORK 247 

Putnam. — Set off from Dutchess in 1812 and named 
for General Israel Putnam. Settlements were made 
by the Dutch probably between 1650 and 1660, though 
possibly later. The Beverly House, the home of a 
noted Tory, Colonel Beverly Robinson, was the head- 
quarters of General Putnam, and likewise of Benedict 
Arnold at the time his treason was made known. He 
made his escape therefrom on the British sloop Vidtiore. 
County seat, Carmel. 

Queens. — One of the original counties organized in 
1683 and named for the Queen of England. Settle- 
ments were made at Hempstead (then written Hem- 
steede) in 1641: by families from Connecticut. One 
year later a company of English families who had been 
living in Holland settled not far from Hempstead, call- 
ing the settlement Ylissingen — now Flushing. Both 
companies received patents from Governor Kieft. 
Within about ten years settlements were made at Oys- 
ter Bay, Newtown and Jamaica. Under Governor 
Stuyvesant the Friends, or "Quakers" as they were 
called, were shamefully persecuted until the people 
interfered in their behalf. Under the vicious English 
governor, Lord Coenbury, several Presbyterian min- 
isters were imprisoned or driven from their pulpits, 
and the Lutherans were banished. During the War 
of the Revolution many of the people Avere loyal to 
the King of England. In 1898 a part of the county 



248 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

was merged into Greater 'New York City; the re- 
mainder was named Nassau county. County seat, 
Mineola. 

Rensselaer. — Set off from Albany county in 1791 
and named for Patroon Killian Yan Rensselaer. The 
greater part of the county was a part of Rensselaer 
Manor. The first settlements were made probably in 
Pittstown in 1650. The first settler in the present 
City of Troy was Derick Yanderhuyden, who, in 1720, 
leased about 500 acres in what is now the heart of the 
city. The resulting settlement was called Yander- 
huyden's Ferry until after the close of the Revolution- 
ary War. The town of Hoosick, in the eastern part 
of the county, was a portion of the battlefield of Ben- 
nington. County seat, Troy. 

Richmond. — One of the original counties, organized 
in 1683, and named for the Duke of Richmond, but 
commonly known as Staten Island. The island, to- 
gether with a part of New Jersey on the nearby shore, 
was purchased in 1630 by Wouter Yan Twilleras agent 
for Michael Pauw. The latter named the patent " Pa- 
vonia," but soon after sold it to David Pieterszen de 
Yries, who established a colony in 1639. The settle- 
ment was broken up by Governor Kieft. Two years 
later the island was seized by an adventurer, Cornelius 
Melyn, who attempted to colonize it, but the colonists 
were driven off by the Indians. The Indians twice 



THE COUNTIES OF NEW YORK 249 

again sold the island to different promoters, but only 
a few people cared to dwell there. In 1655 the Indians 
murdered nearly every one who remained. The island 
reverted to the West India Company shortly afterward 
and passed into the possession of the English in 166-1, 
the Indians again selling it to Governor Lovelace. 
During the War of the Revolution it was occupied by 
the British, although several attempts to capture it 
were made by the Continental troops. Not until 1833 
was the compromise made with New Jersey that gave 
New York State possession of the island. Sailors' 
Snug Harbor, a home for aged seamen, was founded in 
1801, by Robert R. Randall. Richmond was annexed 
to New York City in 1898. 

Rockland. — Set off from Orange county in 1798 
and named for the picturesque scenery that diversifies 
it. During the War of the Revolution, Fort Stony 
Point was abandoned and Fort Fayette at Yerj^lancks 
Point was captured by the British. General Wash- 
ington ordered their recapture and sent General Wayne 
to effect it. AYayne captured Stony Point by a bay- 
onet charge, but failed to take Fort Fayette. The 
trial of Major Andre took place in the old Dutch church 
at Nyack and he was confined in an old stone farm 
house that was standing in 1900. After the execution 
of his sentence, his remains were buried near the Jersey 
line, but were removed to England in 1831. Piermont 



250 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

was formerly the terminus of the Erie Kailroad. 
County seat, I^ew City. 

St. Lawrence. — Set off from Clinton, Montgomery 
and Herkimer counties in 1802 and named for the 
river. The French erected Fort Presentation at Os- 
wegatchie about 1740. Settlements were made at Os- 
wegatchie in 1796 by Nathan Ford, and at Canton 
in 1799 by Stillman Foote. During the War of 1812 
the British crossed the St. Lawrence in boats and at- 
tacked Ogdensburg, but were repelled by a small force. 
The following year they entered the village and 
burned a part of the village. County seat, Canton. 

Saratoga. — Set off from Albany county in 1791. 
The famous Kayaderosseras patent, granted, 1702, to 
David Schuyler and Robert Livingston, covered a large 
part of the county, but Yan Schaik's and Saratoga 
patents were granted two years before. Settlements 
were made on the Kayaderosseras patent as early as 
1715, but probably others were made within the limits 
of the county at least five years before that date. In 
1747 the Indians burned the settlement at Fish Creek 
(now Schuyler ville) and killed fifty or more people. 
Thirty years later General Burgoyne surrendered to 
General Gates near the village of Schuylerville. 

Schenectady. — Set oflF from Albany county in 1809. 
In 1665 Governor Nichols granted a patent to Alex- 
ander Glen. A patent for tract now including Nes- 



THE COUNTIES OF NEW YORK 251 

kayuna township was granted to Harmon Yedder in 
1664-1665, though a settlement, probably a trading 
post, had been made at the Indian village twenty or 
more years before. In ITIS Canadian Indians am- 
bushed a company of militia and killed thirty-two. 
County seat, Schenectady. 

Schoharie. — Set off from Albany and Otsego coun- 
ties in 1795. Settlements were made in Schoharie 
Valley in 1711 by the families of German soldiers who 
had served in English wars, the lands being given them 
by Queen Anne. During the Kevolutionary War the 
county was overrun by Tories and Indians under Sir 
John Johnson, Colonel Butler, and Chief Joseph Brant. 
Many lives and hundreds of buildings were destroyed. 
In 1775 a sharp conflict occurred between fift}^ Con- 
tinental troops and more than three hundred Indians 
under Brant. In 1780, Sir John Johnson, with eight 
hundred Tories and Indians, attacked the old fort at 
Middleburg village, but was beaten off by Colonel 
Yrooman. County seat, Schoharie. 

Schuyler. — Set off from Steuben, Chemung and 
Tompkins counties in 1851 and named for General 
Philip Schuyler. The early history of the county has 
been included in the counties bearing the foregoing 
names. County seat, Watkins. 

Steuben. — Set off from Ontario county in 1796 and 
named for Baron Steuben, the Prussian General. The 



252 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

first settlement within the present limits of the county 
was made probably at Bath in 1792 by Charles Wil- 
liamson on the Pultney patent. Emigrants from New 
England settled in the town of Prattsburg a few years 
later. The village of Painted Post in the town of Er- 
win received its name from a post stained or decorated, 
and erected as a burial monument to the Indian Chief 
Montour, a son of Queen Catherine. This remarkable 
chief died of wounds received in a skirmish at Freelings 
Fort on West Branch (of the Susquehanna River). ^ 
The monument was stored in a hotel for several years, 
but was thrown into the river by a hotel employee 
about 1805-1810. County seat, Bath. 

Suffolk. — One of the ten original counties organized 
in 1683, and named for the county of the same name 
in England. The first settlement was made at South old 
about 1630 by people from Connecticut, and the county 
itself was included in the Connecticut colony of l^ew 
Haven. Gardiners Island was settled by Lyon Gard- 
iner in 1635; Shelter Island in 1652; Brookhaven in 
1655, by emigrants from Massachusetts, and Smith- 
town in 1677, by Richard Smythe, who obtained a pat- 
ent from Rhode Island. The people of this part of 
Long Island never acknowledged the claims of the 
Dutch, and only one governor. Calve, ever attempted 

* According to another authority he was killed at the battle of 
Newtown (Elniira). 



THE COUKTIES OF NEW YORK 253 

to force Dutch rule upon the people. William Kidd, 
the pirate, secreted a part of his treasure on Gardiners 
Island, but it is thought that the treasure was seized 
by the Earl of Bellomont, the royal governor, a short 
time afterward. During the A\^ar of the devolution 
the British collected military stores and provisions 
at Sag Harbor. In May, 1777, Lieutenant Colonel 
Meigs, witli 170 men, went in whale boats from 
Guilford, Conn., across the sound to Southold, dragged 
the boats over land to the bay, rowed to Sag Harbor 
and destroyed the stores— including twelve small ves- 
sels, one of which was a schooner manned by seventy- 
nine men. In twenty-five hours from the time of leav- 
ing they were back in Guilford. County seat, Eiver- 
head. 

Sullivan. — Set off from Ulster county in 1809 and 
named for General Sullivan. Most of the county is 
included in the Ximisink and Hardenburg patents. The 
first settlements were probably made by the Dutch 
in the township of Mamakeating before 1700. Dur- 
ing the Eevolutionary War, Lieutenant Grahams and 
twenty men were ambushed and killed near Nave- 
sink. Monticello, the county seat, was settled in 1804. 

Tioga.— Set off from Montgomery county in 1701 
and named from an Indian word probably meaning 
" water gap." A part of the county, including Rich- 
ford, Newark and Berkshire townships, was included 



254 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

in the Massachusetts Purchase before it became the 
Holland patent; most of the southern part was in- 
cluded in the Military Tract granted to soldiers. A 
settlement was made at Oswego in 1785 by James Mc- 
Master and William Taylor. The famine year, which 
was due to the arrival of many emigrants unprovided 
with food, occurred a few years later. County seat, 
Oswego. 

Tompkins. Set off from Cayuga and Seneca counties 
in 1817 and named for Governor Daniel Tompkins. 
A small part of the county belonged to the Massachu- 
setts Purchase, but the greater part formed a portion 
of the Military Tract. County seat, Ithaca. 

Ulster, — One of the original counties organized in 
1683 and named for the Irish title (Earl of Ulster) of 
the Duke of York. A trading post and fort was built 
near the site of Kingston in 1615, and a settlement was 
made at the mouth of Esopus Creek soon after. In 
1657 a Dutch officer killed an Indian whom he caught 
stealing from his orchard, and so much ill-feeling re- 
sulted that, six years later, the Indians fell upon the 
settlement and killed or captured sixty-five people. 
Warwarsing was settled about 1800 by Huguenots, but 
in 1779, and again in 1781, it was destroyed by Indians. 
In 1777, during the progress of the expedition to relieve 
General Burgoyne, Kingston was burned, only one 
house escaping destruction. County seat, Kingston. 



THE COUNTIES OF NEW YORK 255 

Warren. Set off from Washington county in 1813 
and named for General Josej)!! Warren. Settlements 
were made at Luzerne, Queensburg and Jolinsburg in 
1790, but military posts Avere established forty years 
before that date. In 1755, during the French and In- 
dian War, Sir William Johnson led 5,000 troops, in- 
cluding 1,000 Indians under King Hendrick, the Mo- 
hawk Chief, against Crown Point. He sent Colonel 
Williams to the foot of Lake George to intercept, a 
French force under General Dieskau, but the latter 
surrounded him. Williams and King Hendrick were 
killed, but Colonel Whiting conducted a very orderly 
retreat. When the two armies came together the 
fighting was of the most stubborn kind, but the English 
won. Sir William Johnson was wounded; General 
Dieskau was captured, mortally wounded, and about 
one thousand of his army were slain. It is said that 
most of the bodies were buried in Bloody Pond. John- 
son did not go on to Crown Point, but built Fort Wil- 
liam Henry at the head of the lake. This fort was cap- 
tured by Montcalm in 1757. Piersons Island was a 
camp for English prisoners. County seat, Caldwell. 

Washington. — Set off from Albany county in 1770 
and named for George Washim^ton. The first settlement 
within the present limits of the county was probably at 
Argyle. A patent covering 30,000 acres was granted 
in 1742 to Laughlin Campbell, who brought from Scot- 



256 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

land eighty-three families. The colony was not suc- 
cessful and most of the people abandoned it. Fort Ed- 
ward was built in 1755; six years later the town of 
Salem was founded; Kingsbury was settled about the 
same time. A battle took place near this village in 
1758, in which Israel Putnam was captured by the 
French. During the War of the Revolution, Whitehall 
(then called Skenesborough for its founder, Major Skene) 
was partly destroyed by the Continental troops in order 
to prevent it from being fortified by the British. County 
seat, Argyle. 

Wayne. — Set off from Ontario and Seneca counties 
in 1823, and named for General "Mad Anthony" 
Wayne. Most of the county is included in that part 
of the Massachusetts Purchase which formed the Pulte- 
ney estate. The settlements within the present limits 
of the county practically began after the War of the 
Revolution. During the War of 1812 the villages of 
Pulteneyville and Sodus were burned by the British. 
The religious sect known as the Mormons originated in 
Palmyra. Some clumsily marked metal plates were 
conveniently " found," and near by two crystals, which 
enabled the markings to be read, were also '^discov- 
ered." Through the instrumentality of these a school 
teacher named Joseph Smith, sitting behind a screen 
in order to hide the plates from profane eyes, read what 
purported to be a ncAV bible, the ''Book of Mormu." 



THE COUNTIES OF NEW YORK 257 

This book was printed and published b}^ the aid of 
funds furnished by Martin Harris, a weli-to-do farmer. 
It was written, however, by an irresponsible clergy- 
man, Solomon Spaulding, of Cherry Valley, of whom 
it was purchased by Smith. The latter associated him- 
self with Rigdon, the printer of the book. They went 
to Kirtland, Ohio, with their converts, wliere Smith 
was killed by a mob. They afterwards went to Xauvoo, 
Illinois, and thence to Salt Lake City. County seat, 
Lyons. 

Westchester. — An original county, organized in 
1683, derived from an old English name meaning- 
" Avest camp." The first settlement was made in the 
village of Westchester (now included in New York 
City) by one Throgmorton, with thirty-five families. 
They came from New England in 1642-1€)'13. A grant 
to Adrien Yan der Donk in 1648 was the beginning of 
Yonkers; it was so called from the proprietor's title 
" Jonge Ileer," or ''young sir." Colonel Thomas 
Pell seized the land, including the villages of Pelham 
and New Rochelle, and the latter Avas purchased by 
Governor Leisler in 1689 for the Huguenots Avho had 
fled from France. The patent known as Cortlandt 
Manor was granted to Stephen Yan Cortlandt in 1697. 
A settlement Avas made at Bedford, now included in 
NeAV York City, in 1681, but it Avas afterwards included 
in the Philii)s patent, a tract containing about 400 square 



268 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIKE STATE 

miles south of Croton River. During the Revolution- 
ary War, Washington's retreat, after the British had 
entered the city, extended from Washington Heights 
and Harlem to White Plains; more or less fighting 
occurred all along this line. A part of the British 
forces landed at Pell's Point, near the mouth of Hutch- 
inson Creek. Colonel John Glover was sent with his 
regiment to delay their advance as long as possible. 
]S^ot far from the place where the Eastern Boulevard 
crosses the City Island Road, Glover deployed his men, 
Y50 in number, behind' the stone walls, and held the 
whole British force at bay. Most of the fighting oc- 
curred near a huge bowlder now called Glover's Rock. 
Glover withdrew in good order; he was afterwards 
complimented by General Lee. During the war this 
part of the county, known as the ''neutral ground," 
was overrun and plundered by " cowboys " and " skin- 
ners." The former were camp followers of the British, 
the latter of the Continental army; both were ma- 
rauders and were but little better than thieves and 
robbers. While encamped at Peekskill, General Put- 
nam captured two spies, who were tried and con- 
demned to be hanged. The British Governor Tyron 
desired to save the life of one of them and wrote 
a very urgent letter to General Putnam in his be- 
half. The latter replied in his characteristic way as 
follows: 



THE COUNTIES OF NEW YORK 259 

Headquarters, 7th August, 1777. 

Sir : Nathan Pahiier, a lieutenant in your king's service, was taken 
in my camp as a spy, he was tried as a spy, he was condemned as a 
spy, and you may rest assured, sir, he shall be hanged as a spy. 

I have the honor to be, &c., 

Israel Putnam. 

His Excellency Governor Tryon. 

P. S. Afternoon : he is hanged. 

Major Andre, the unfortunate victim of Arnold's 
treason, was captured near the village of Tarrytown. 
His captors, Yan Wart, Paulding and Williams, 
were each rewarded by the Congress with a farm 
and pensioned with an annuity of $200 for life. 
County seat, White Plains. 

Wyomino. — Set off from Genesee county in 1841. 
The towns of Eagle, Pike and a part of Genesee Falls 
(formerly Portage) were added in 1846. Most of the 
county was included in the Holland Land Company's 
patent. The part formerly known as the Gardeau Flats 
was reserved by a treaty as a gift to Mary Jemison, a 
white woman who was captured when a child by the 
Senecas, and who afterwards was twice married to 
Seneca chiefs. The first settlement was made ])ro])- 
ably at Warsaw in 1803 by Elizur Webster; most of 
the early settlers were from Vermont. County seat, 
Warsaw. 



260 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE 

Yates. — Set off from Ontario County in 1823 and 
named for Joseph C. Yates, then governor of the state. 
The county was a part of the Puiteney estate and there- 
fore a part of the Massachusetts Purchase. Penn Yan, 
the county seat, received its peculiar name for having 
been settled by P^^i^isylvanians and Yankees. 



INDEX 



Albany, beginning of, 37, 39. 
Albany county divided, 142, 
Andros, Edmund, Governor, 

67, 77. 
Arnold, Benedict, 126, 136 ; 

treason of, 147. 

Baptists in New York, 50. 
Battoes of Mohawk, 143, 179. 
Bayonne, 34. 

Bellomont, Earl of, 74, ^6. 
Bogardus, Dominie, 45, 46. 
Boston Post Road, 65, 
Bradstreet, Capt., captures 

Fort Oswego, 111. 
Brandt, Joseph, 101, 139. 
Burgoyne, surrender of, 136. 
Butlers Ford, 147. 

Canal, Erie, 182 ; Delaware 
and Hudson, 202. 

Carpenter, Sergeant, 217, 

Cherry Valley, 142. 

Christiansen, 37. 

Clermont^ the, 188. 

Clinton, De Witt, Governor, 
196. 

Colden, Cadwallader, Gov- 
ernor, 82, 

Colonies resist taxation, 124. 



Columbia University, 194. 
"Crossroads," the, 42. 
Crown Point, 108. 

De Lacey, James, Governor, 

82. 
Delaware divide, 17. 
Dongan, Thomas, Governor, 

78, 85. 

English capture New Nether- 
land, 56 ; in Long Island, 53, 
60 ; recapture New Nether- 
land, 65. 

Ericsson, John, 210. 

Five Nations, tlie, 90. 

Flushing, town officers decree, 
52. 

Fort, Crown Point, 108 ; Ed- 
ward, 113 ; Orange, 38 ; Os- 
wego, 113; Ticonderoga, 108, 
124. 

French, forts of the, 102; trad- 
ing-posts, 24, 37, 103. 

Frontenac, Count, 118. 

Fulton, Robert, 184, 185. 

Fur-trading, 36. 

Greater New York City, 223. 



262 



INDEX 



Hamilton, Alexander, 194. 
Helderberg war, 190. 
Herkimer, General, 138, 139 ; 

monument to, 142. 
Hodshone, Robert, 51. 
Howe, General, 127, 130. 
Hudson, Henry, death of, 31 ; 

explorations of, 23 ; in New 

York Bay, 28. 
Hudson Valley, French traders 

in, 24. 
Hutchinson, Ann, 45. 

Ice-age in New York, 14. 
Indian, clans, 91 ; council, 92 ; 

long houses, 90; villages, 93. 
Indians, origin of Iroquoian, 97 ; 

reservations for, 102. 

Johnson, Sir William, 87, 110, 
114. 

Kidd, Captain, 74. 
Kieft, William, 44. 
King George's war, 104. 
King William's war, 104. 
King's College, 194. 

Leisler, Jacob, 79. 
Livingston, Robert, 187. 
Lovelace, Governor, 65, 66 ; 

establishes Boston letter post, 

65. 

McKinley, William, 227. 
Manhattan Island, purchase of, 

49. 



Manors, 34, 189. 
Megapolensis, Dominie, 50. 
Minuit, Peter, 43. 
Mohawk Valley, 143. 
Monitor, the, 210. 
Montcalm, General, 110. 
Montgomery, Richard, 126. 
Morris, Gouverneur, 194. 

New York riots, 216. 
Nichols, Governor, 64. 

Patroons, the, 32, 35, 36, 61, 

62. 
Pell defies Stuyvesant, 55. 
Penn, William, seeks to obtain 

Susquehanna Valley, 84. 
Piracy in New World, 72. 
Prairies of New York, 18. 

Quakers in New York, 50, 166, 
Queen Anne's war, 104. 

Railroad, Delaware and Hud- 
son, 202 ; Delaware, Lacka- 
wanna and Western, 204 ; 
Elevated, 205 ; Erie, 201 ; 
first, 200 ; Lehigh Valley, 
204; New York Central, 202; 
Subway, 207 ; West Shore,. 
204. 

Roelandson, Adam, establishes 
first school, 67. 

St. Leger. Colonel, 137, 140. 
Schenectady, founding of, 117, 
SqhoolSj free, 196, 



INDEX 



263 



Schuyler, Philip, 126. 
Six Nations, the, 1)9, 101. 
Stuyvesant Peter, 46, 55, 57, 
62, 69. 

Tappan Sea, 16. 
Tarrytown, 40. 
Ticonderoga, 108, 124. 
Tories, 127, 188, 147. 
Trade routes, 15, 18, 42, 92, 
108. 

Unadilla Valley, 144. 

Yallevs of New York, 15. 



Van Curler, Arendt, 118. 
Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 202. 
Van Rensselaer, Kilian, 84 ; 

Stephen, 169. 
Van Twiller, Wouter, 48, 48, 

49. 
Verrazano's exploration, 19 ; 

map, 22. 

Washington, George, 106, 112, 

127, 129. 
West India Company, the, 31. 
William of Orange, 80. 
Willet, Colonel, 140, 147. 
Wood, Fernando, 214. 



H 99 78 







I ^ a\ N^ 



